
Class. 
Book 



LIFE ATID GENIUS OF 
NATHAIJIEL HAV7TH0RNE 



By 

Frank Preston Stearns 

h 



Phi lade-lf^hia^ yLoMdoh 

J. B. Llppincott Oo^r[f>an\/ 



1906 



INSCRIBED 

TO 

EMILIA MACIEL STEARNS 



"In the elder days of art 

Builders wrought with greatest care 
Each minute and unseen part, — 
For the gods see everywhere. ' ' 

— Longfellow 

' ' Oh, happy dreams of such a soul have I, 
And softly to myself of him I sing, 
Whose seraph pride all pride doth overwing ; 
Who stoops to greatness, matches low with high, 
And as in grand equalities of sky, 

Stands level with the beggar and the king. ' ' 

— Wasson 



P r e f a c e 



The simple events of Nathaniel Hawthorne's 
life have long been before the public. From 
1835 onward they may easily be traced in the 
various Note-books, which have been edited 
from his diary, and previous to that time we 
are indebted for them chiefly to the recollections 
of his two faithful friends, Horatio Bridge and 
Elizabeth Peabody. These were first system- 
atised and published by George P. Lathrop in 
1872, but a more complete and authoritative 
biography was issued by Julian Hawthorne 
twelve years later, in which, however, the writer 
has modestly refrained from expressing an opin- 
ion as to the quality of his father's genius, or 
from attempting any critical examination of his 
father's literary work. It is in order to supply 
in some measure this deficiency, that the present 
volume has been written. At the same time, 
I trust to have given credit where it was due 
to my predecessors, in the good work of making 
known the true character of so rare a genius 
and so exceptional a personality. 

The publication of Horatio Bridge's mem- 
5 



PREFACE 

oirs and of Elizabeth Manning's account of the 
boyhood of Hawthorne have placed before the 
world much that is new and valuable concern- 
ing the earlier portion of Hawthorne's life, of 
which previous biographers could not very- 
well reap the advantage. I have made thorough 
researches in regard to Hawthorne's American 
ancestry, but have been able to find no ground 
for the statements of Conway and Lathrop, 
that William Hathorne, their first ancestor 
on this side of the ocean, was directly con- 
nected with the Quaker persecution. Some 
other mistakes, like Hawthorne's supposed con- 
nection with the duel between Cilley and 
Graves, have also been corrected. 

F. P. S. 



Contents 



CHAPTER PAGE 

I. Salem and the Hathornes : 1630-1800 . . . 11 

n. Boyhood of Hawthorne: 1804-1821 35^ 

III. BowDoiN College : 1821-1825 60 

IV. Little Misery : 1825-1835 78 

V. Eos and Eros : 1835-1839 104 

VI. Pegasus at the Cart : 1839-1841 125 

VII. Hawthorne as a Socialist: 1841-1842... 139 

VIII. Concord and the Old Manse : 1842-1845. 157 

IX. "Mosses from an Old Manse": 1845 ••• ^7^ 

X. From Concord to Lenox: 1845-1849 202 

XI. Pegasus is Free : 1850-1852 229 

XII. The Liverpool Consulate : 1852-1854 . . . 255 

XIII. Hawthorne in England : 1854-1858 276 

XIV. Italy 307 

XV. Hawthorne as Art Critic: 1858 328 

XVI. "The Marble Faun": 1859-1860 348 

XVII. Homeward Bound : 1860-1862 376 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

XVIII. Immortality 403 

Portraits of Hawthorne 433 

Editions of Hawthorne's Books Pub- 
lished UNDER His Own Direction . 436 

Mrs. Emerson and Mrs. Hawthorne .... 438 

Appendices 445 



List of Illustrations 



/ 

Portrait of Hawthorne, By Frances Osborne 
IN 1893 Frontispiec/ 

Hawthorne's Birthplace 36 

■■ Horatio Bridge, From the Portrait by Eastman 

Johnson 64 

' Hawthorne, From the Portrait by Charles Os- 
good IN 1840 134 

The Old Manse, Residence of Dr. Ripley 156 

The Custom House, Salem, Mass 204 

The Wayside r256 

Guido Reni's Portrait of Beatrice Cenci 338 

Statue of Praxiteles' Resting Faun 364 / 

Torre Mediavalle della Scimmia (Hilda's Tower) 

in Rome 375 ^ 



The Life and Genius of 

Nathaniel Hawthorne 

CHAPTER I 

Salem AND THE Hathornes : 1 630-1 800 

The three earliest settlements on the New 
England coast were Plymouth, Boston, and 
Salem; but Boston soon proved its superior 
advantages to the two others, not only from its 
more capacious harbor, but also from the con- 
venient waterway ' which the Charles River 
afforded to the interior of the Colony. We find 
that a number of English families, and among 
them the ancestors of Gen. Joseph Warren and 
Wendell Phillips, who crossed the ocean in 
1640 in the "good ship Arbella, " soon after- 
ward migrated to Watertown on Charles River 
for the sake of the excellent farming lands 
which they found there. Salem, however, 
maintained its ascendency over Plymouth and 
other neighboring harbors on the coast, and 
soon grew to be the second city of importance 
in the Colony during the eighteenth century, 
when the only sources of wealth were fishing, 
shipbuilding, and commerce. Salem flourished 
remarkably. Its leading citizens became wealthy 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

and developed a social aristocracy as culti- 
vated, as well educated, and, it may also be 
added, as fastidious as that of Boston itself. 
In this respect it differed widely from the other 
small cities of New England, and the exclu- 
siveness of its first families was more strongly 
marked on account of the limited size of the 
place. Thus it continued down to the middle 
of the last century, when railroads and the 
tendency to centralization began to draw away 
its financial prosperity, and left the city to 
small manufactures and its traditional respect- 
ability. 

The finest examples of American eighteenth 
century architecture are supposed to exist in 
and about the city of Salem, and they have the 
advantage, w^hich American architecture lacks 
so painfully at the present time, of possessing a 
definite style and character — edifices which 
are not of a single type, like most of the houses 
in Fifth Avenue, but which, while differing in 
many respects, have a certain general resem- 
blance, that places them all in the same cate- 
gory. The small old country churches of Essex 
County are not distinguished for fine carving or 
other ornamentation, and still less by the costli- 
ness of their material, for they are mostly built 
of white pine, but they have an indefinable 
air of pleasantness about them, as if they graced 
the ground they stand on, and their steeples 
seem to float in the air above us. If we enter 
them on a Sunday forenoon — for on week-da3^s 
they are like a sheepfold without its occupants — 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

we meet with much the same kind of pleasant- 
ness in the assemblage there. We do not find 
the deep religious twilight of past ages, or the 
noonday glare of a fashionable synagogue, but 
a neatly attired congregation of weather-beaten 
farmers and mariners, and their sensible looking 
wives, with something of the original Puritan 
hardness in their faces, much ameliorated by 
the liberalism and free thinking of the past 
fifty years. Among them too you will see some 
remarkably pretty young women; and young 
men like those who dug the trenches on 
Breed's Hill in the afternoon of June i6, 1775. 
There may be veterans in the audience who 
helped Grant to go to Richmond. Withal there 
is much of the spirit of the early Christians 
among them, and virtue enough to save their 
country in any emergency. 

These old churches have mostly disappeared 
from Salem city and have been replaced by more 
aristocratic edifices, whose square or octagonal 
towers are typical of their leading parishioners, 
— a dignified class, if somewhat haughty and 
reserved; but they too will soon belong to the 
past, drawn off to the great social centres in 
and about Boston. In the midst of Salem there 
is a triangular common, " with its never-failing 
elms," where the boys large and small formerly 
played cricket — married men too — as they do 
still on the village greens of good old England, 
and around this enclosure the successful mer- 
chants and navigators of the city built their 
mansion houses; not half houses like those in 

13 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

the larger cities, but with spacious halls and 
rooms on either side going up three stories. 
It is in the gracefully ornamented doorways and 
the delicate interior wood-work, the carving of 
wainscots, mantels and cornices, the skilful 
adaptations of classic forms to a soft and delicate 
material that the charm of this architecture 
chiefly consists, — especially in the staircases, 
with their carved spiral posts and slender 
railings, rising upward in the centre of the 
front hall, and turning right and left on the 
story above. It is said that after the year 
eighteen hundred the quality of this decoration 
sensibly declined; it was soon replaced by more 
prosaic forms, and now the tools no longer exist 
that can make it. Sir Christopher Wren and 
Inigo Jones would have admired it. America, 
excepting in New York City, escaped the false 
rococo taste of the eighteenth century. 

The Salem sea-captains of old times were 
among the boldest of our early navigators; 
sailing among the pirates of the Persian Gulf 
and trading with the cannibals of Polynesia, 
and the trophies which they brought home from 
those strange regions, savage implements of 
war and domestic use, clubs, spears, boomerangs, 
various cooking utensils, all carved with infinite 
pains from stone, ebony and iron- wood, cloth 
from the bark of the tapa tree, are now de- 
posited in the Peabody Academy, where they 
form one of the largest collections of the kind 
extant. Even more interesting is the sword of 
a sword-fish, pierced through the oak planking 

14 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

of a Salem vessel for six inches or more. No 
human force could do that even with a spear of 
the sharpest steel. Was the sword-fish roused 
to anger when the ship came upon him sleeping 
in the water; or did he mistake it for a strange 
species of whale ? 

There is a court-house on Federal Street, 
built in Webster's time, of hard cold granite 
in the Grecian fashion of the day, not of the 
white translucent marble with which the Greeks 
would have built it. Is it the court-house where 
Webster made his celebrated argument in the 
White murder case, or was that court-house 
torn down and a plough run through the ground 
where it stood, as Webster affirmed that it ought 
to be? Salem people were curiously reticent 
in regard to that trial, and fashionable society 
there did not like Webster the better for having 
the two Knapps convicted. 

Much more valuable than such associations 
is William Hunt's full-length portrait of Chief 
Justice Shaw, which hangs over the judge's 
bench in the front court-room. "When I look 
at your honor I see that you are homely, but 
when I think of you I know that you are great. " 
It is this combination of an imprepossessing 
physique with rare dignity of character which 
Hunt has represented in what many consider 
the best of American portraits. It is perhaps 
too much in the sketchy style of Velasquez, 
but admirable for all that. 

Time has dealt kindly with Salem, in effacing 
all memorials of the witchcraft persecution, 

IS 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

except a picturesque old house at the corner of 
North and Essex Streets, where there are said 
to have been preliminary examinations for 
witchcraft, — a matter which concerns us now 
but slightly. The youthful associations of a 
genius are valuable to us on account of the 
influence which they may be supposed to have 
had on his early life, but associations which 
have no determining consequences may as well 
be neglected. The hill where those poor martyrs 
to superstition were executed may be easily 
seen on the left of the city, as you roll in on the 
train from Boston. It is part of a ridge which 
rises between the Concord and Charles Rivers 
and extends to Cape Ann, where it dives into 
the ocean, to reappear again like a school of 
krakens, or other marine monsters, in the Isles 
of Shoals. 

New England has not the fertile soil of many 
sections of the United States, and its racking 
climate is proverbial, but it is blessed with the 
two decided advantages of pure water and fine 
scenery. There is no more beautiful section 
of its coast than that between Salem Harbor 
and Salisbury Beach, long stretches of smooth 
sand alternating with bold rocky promontories. 
A summer drive from Swampscott to Marble- 
head reminds one even of the Bay of Naples 
(without Vesuvius) , and the wilder coast of Cape 
Ann, with its dark pines, red-roofed cottages, 
and sparkling surf, is quite as delightful. Wil- 
liam Hunt went there in the last sad years of 
his life to paint "sunshine," as he said; and 

i6 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

Whittier has given us poetic touches of the 
inland scenery in elevated verse: 

"Fleecy clouds casting their shadows 
Over uplands and meadows; 
And country roads winding as roads will, 
Here to a ferry, there to a mill." 

Poets arise where there is poetic nourish- 
ment, internal and external, for them to feed on ; 
and it is not surprising that a Whittier and a 
Hawthorne should have been evolved from the 
environment in which they grew to manhood. 

It is a common saying with old Boston families 
that their ancestors came to America in the 
"Arbella" with Governor Winthrop, but as a 
matter of fact there were at least fifteen vessels 
that brought colonists to Massachusetts in 1630, 
and I cannot discover that any lists of their 
passengers have been preserved. The statement 
that certain persons came over at the same time 
with Governor Winthrop might soon become a 
tradition that they came in the same ship with 
him; but all that we know certainly is that 
Governor Winthrop landed about the middle 
of June, 1630, and that his son arrived two 
weeks later in the "Talbot," and was drowned 
July 2, while attempting to cross one of the 
tide rivers at Salem. Who arrived in the thirteen 
other vessels that year we know not. Ten years 
later Sir Richard Saltonstall emigrated to Bos- 
ton with the Phillips and Warren families in 
the " Arbella" (or "Arabella"), and there is no 
telling how much longer she sailed the ocean. 

Hawthorne himself states that his ancestors 
2 17 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

came from Wig Castle in Wigton in Warwick- 
shire,* but no such castle has been discovered, 
and the only Wigton in England appears to be 
located in Cumberland.! He does not tell us 
where he obtained this information, and it 
certainly could not have been from authentic 
documents, — more likely from conversation with 
an English traveller. Hawthorne never troubled 
himself much concerning his ancestry, English 
or American ; while he was consul at Liverpool, 
he had exceptional advantages for investigating 
the subject, but whatever attempt he made, 
there resulted in nothing. It is only recently 
that Mr. Henry F. Waters, who spent fifteen 
years in England searching out the records of 
old New England families, succeeded in dis- 
covering the connecting link between the first 
American Hawthornes and their relatives in 
the old country. It was a bill of exchange for 
one hundred pounds drawn by William Ha- 
thorne, of Salem, payable to Robert Hathorne 
in London, and dated October 19, 1651, which 
first gave Mr. Waters the clue to his discovery. 
Robert not only accepted his brother's draft, 
but wrote him this simple and business-like but 
truly affectionate epistle in return: 

"Good Brother: Remember my love to my sister, 
my brother John and sister, my brother Davenport and 
sister and the rest of our friends. 
"In haste I rest 

' ' Your loving brother, 
"From Bray this i April, 1653. Robert Hathorne." 

* Diary, August 22, 1837. 
t Lathrop's " Study of Hawthorne," 46. 
18 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

From this it appears that Major William 
Hathorne not only had a brother John, who 
established himself in Lynn, but a sister Eliza- 
beth, who married Richard Davenport, of 
Salem. Concerning Robert Hathorne we only 
know further that he died in 1689; but in the 
probate records of Berkshire, England, there 
is a will proved May 2, 1651, of William Ha- 
thorne, of Binfield, who left all his lands, build- 
ings and tenements in that county to his son 
Robert, on condition that Robert should pay 
to his father's eldest son, William, one hundred 
pounds, and to his son John twenty pounds 
sterling. He also left to another son, Edmund, 
thirty acres of land in Bray, and there are other 
legacies; but it cannot be doubted that the 
hundred pounds mentioned in this will is the 
same that Major William Hathorne drew for 
five months later, and that we have identi- 
fied here the last English ancestor of Nathaniel 
Hawthorne. His wife's given name was Sarah, 
but her maiden name still remains unknown. 
The family resided chiefly at Binfield, on the 
borders of Windsor Park, and evidently were 
in comfortable circumstances at that time. 
From William Hathorne, senior, their gene- 
alogy has been traced back to John Hathorne 
(spelled at that time Hothorne), who died in 
1520, but little is known of their affairs, or 
how they sustained themselves during the 
strenuous vicissitudes of the Reformation.* 

* " Hawthorne Centenary at Salem," 81. 
19 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

Emmerton and Waters* state that William 
Hathorne came to Massachusetts Bay in 1630, 
and this is probable enough, though by no 
means certain, for they give no authority for 
it. We first hear of him definitely as a free- 
holder in the settlement of Dorchester in 1634, 
but his name is not on the list of the first twenty- 
four Dorchester citizens, dated October 19, 
1630. All accounts agree that he moved to 
Salem in 1636, or the year following, and Na- 
thaniel Hawthorne believed that he came to 
America at that time. Upham, the historian of 
Salem witchcraft, who has made the most 
thorough researches in the archives of old Salem 
families, says of William Hathorne: 

"William Hathorne appears on the church 
records as early as 1636. He died in June, 1681, 
seventy-four years of age. No one in our annals 
fills a larger space. As soldier, commanding 
important and difficult expeditions, as counsel 
in cases before the courts, as judge on the bench, 
and innumerable other positions requiring talent 
and intelligence, he was constantly called to 
serve the public. He was distinguished as a 
public speaker, and is the only person, I believe, 
of that period, whose reputation as an orator 
has come down to us. He was an Assistant, 
that is, in the upper branch of the Legislature, 
seventeen years. He was a deputy twenty 
years. When the deputies, who before sat 
with the assistants, were separated into a distinct 
body, and the House of Representatives thus 

* "English Records about New England Families. " 
20 



NATHANIEL HAV^fTHORNE 

came into existence, in 1644, Hathorne was 
their first Speaker. He occupied the chair, 
with intermediate services on the floor from 
time to time, until raised to the other HouSc 
He was an inhabitant or Salem Village, having 
his farm there, and a dwelling-house, in which, 
he resided when his legislative, military, and 
other officud duties permitted. His son John, 
who succev led him in all his public honors, 
also lived on liis own farm in the village a great 
part of the time. "* 

Evidently he was the most important person 
in the colony, next to Governor Winthrop, and 
unequalled by any of his descendants, except 
Nathaniel Hawthorne, "and by him in a wholly 
different manner; for it is in vain that we seek 
for traits similar to those of the great romance 
writer among his ancestors. We can only say 
that they both possessed exceptional mental 
ability, and there the comparison ends. 

The attempt has been made to connect Wil- 
liam Hathorne with the persecution of the 
Quakers, t and it is true that he was a member 
of the Colonial Assembly during the period 
of the persecution; it is likely that his vote 
supported the measures in favor of it, but this 
is not absolutely certain. We do not learn that 
he acted at any time in the capacity of sheriff; 
the most diligent researches in the archives of 
the State House at Boston have failed to dis- 
cover any direct connection on the part of 

* "Salem Witchcraft," i. 99. 
t Conway's " Life of Hawthorne," 15. 
21 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

William Hathorne with that movement; and 
the best authorities in regard to the events of 
that time make no mention of him.* It was the 
clergy who aroused public opinion and instigated 
the prosecutions against both the Quakers 
and the supposed witches of Salem, and the 
civil authorities were little more than passive 
instruments in their hands. Hathorne's work 
was essentially a legislative one, — a highly im- 
portant work in ' that wild, unsettled country, 
— to adapt English statutes and legal procedures 
to new and strange conditions. He was twice 
Speaker of the House between 1660 and 1671, 
and cis presiding officer he could exert less in- 
fluence on measures of expediency than any 
other person present, as he could not argue 
either for or against them. And yet, after 
Charles II. had interfered in behalf of the 
Quakers, William Hathorne wrote an elaborate 
and rather circuitous letter to the British Min- 
istry, arguing for non-intervention in the affairs 
of the colony, which might have possessed 
greater efficacy if he had not signed it with an 
assumed name.f However strong a Puritan 
he may have been, William Hathorne evidently 
had no intention of becoming a martyr to the 
cause of colonial independence. Yet it may be 
stated in his favor, and in that of the colonists 
generally, that the fault was not wholly on one 
side, for the Quakers evidently sought perse- 
cution, and would have it, cost what it might. J 

* Sewel, Hallowell, Ellis. 

t J. Hawthorne's " Nathaniel Hawthorne," i. 24. 
J Hallowell's "Quaker Invasion of New England.!! 
22 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

Much the same may be affirmed of his son 
John, who had the singular misfortune to be 
judge in Salem at the time of the witchraft 
epidemic. The belief in witchcraft has always 
had its stronghold among the fogs and gloomy 
fiords of the North. James I. brought it with 
him from Scotland to England, and in due 
course it was transplanted to America. Judge 
Hathorne appears to have been at the top of 
affairs at Salem in his time, and it is more than 
probable that another in his place would have 
found himself obliged to act as he did. Law 
is, after all, in exceptional cases little more than 
a reflex of public opinion. " The common law, " 
said Webster, "is common-sense," which 
simply means the common opinion of the most 
influential people. Much more to blame than 
John Hathorne were those infatuated persons 
who deceived themselves into thinking that 
the pains of rheumatism, neuralgia, or some 
similar malady were caused by the malevolent 
influence of a neighbor against whom they had 
perhaps long harbored a grudge. They were 
the true witches and goblins of that epoch, and 
the only ones, if any, who ought to have been 
hanged for it. 

What never has been reasoned up cannot be 
reasoned down. It seems incredible in this 
enlightened era, as the newspapers call it, that 
any woman should be at once so inhuman and 
so frivolous as to swear away the life of a fellow- 
creature upon an idle fancy; and yet, even in 
regard to this, there were slightly mitigating 

23 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

conditions. Consider only the position of that 
handful of Europeans in this vast wilderness, 
as it then was. The forests came down to the 
sea-shore, and brought with them all the weird 
fancies, terrors and awful forebodings which 
the human mind could conjure up. They feared 
the Indians, the wild beasts, and most of all 
one another, for society was not yet sufficiently 
organized to afford that repose and content- 
ment of spirit which they had left behind in 
the Old World. They had come to America to 
escape despotism, but they had brought des- 
potism in their own hearts. They could escape 
from the Stuarts, but there was no escape from 
human nature. 

It is hkely that their immediate progenitors 
would not have carried the witchcraft craze to 
such an extreme. The emigrating Puritans 
were a fairly well-educated class of men and 
women, but their children did not enjoy equal 
opportunities. The new continent had to be 
subdued physically and reorganized before 
any mental growth could be raised there. Lev- 
elling the forest was a small matter beside clear- 
ing the land of stumps and stones. All hands 
were obliged to work hard, and there was little 
opportunity for intellectual development or 
social culture. As a logical consequence, an 
era ensued not unlike the dark ages of Europe. 
But this was essential to the evolution of a 
new type of man, and for the foundation of 
American nationality; and it was thus that 
the various nationalities of Europe arose out 
of the ruins of the Roman Empire. 

24 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

The scenes that took place in Judge Hathorne's 
court-room have never been equalled since 
in American jurisprudence. Powerful forces 
came into play there, and the reports that 
have been preserved read like scenes from 
Shakespeare. In the case of Rebecca Nurse, 
the Judge said to the defendant: 

' ' ' You do know whether you are guilty, and have 
familiarity with the Devil; and now when you are here 
present to see such a thing as these testify, — and a black 
man whispering in yovir ear, and devils about you, — what 
do you say to it? ' " 

To which she replied : 

"'It is all false. I am clear.' Whereupon Mrs. Pope, 
one of the witnesses, fell into a grievous fit."* 

Alas, poor beleaguered soul! And one may 
well say, " What imaginations those women had!" 
Tituba, the West Indian Aztec who appears in 
this social-religious explosion as the chief and 
original incendiary, — verily the root of all 
evil, — gave the following testimony: 

"Q. 'Did you not pinch Elizabeth Hubbard this 
morning?' 

"A. 'The man brought her to me, and made me pinch 
her.' 

"Q. 'Why did you go to Thomas Putnam's last night 
and hurt his child?' 

"A. 'They pull and haul me, and make me go. ' 

"Q. 'And what would they have you do?' 

"A. 'Kill her with a knife.' 

" (Lieutenant Fuller and others said at this time, when the 
child saw these persons, and was tormented by them, that 
she did complain of a knife, — that they would have her cut 
her head off with a knife.) 

* Upham's " Salem Witchcraft," ii. 64. 

25 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

"Q. 'How did you go?' 

"A. 'We ride upon sticks, and are there presently.' 

"Q. 'Do you go through the trees or over them?' 

"A. 'We see nothing, but are there presently.' 

"Q. 'Why did you not tell your master?' 

"A. 'I was afraid. They said they would cut off my head 

if I told. ' 

"Q. 'Would you not have hurt others, if you could?' 

"A. 'They said they would hurt others, but they 

could not. ' 

"Q. 'What attendants hath Sarah Good?' 

"A. 'A yellow-bird, and she would have given me one.' 

"Q. 'What meat did she give it?' 

"A. 'It did suck her between her fingers.' ". 

This might serve as an epilogue to " Macbeth," 
and the wonder is that an unlettered Indian 
should have had the wit to make such apt and 
subtle replies. It is also noteworthy that these 
strange proceedings took place after the ex- 
pulsion of the royal governor, and previous to 
the provincial government of William III. 
If Sir Edmund Andros had remained, the tragedy 
might have been changed into a farce. 

After all, it appears that John Hathorne was 
not a lawyer, for he describes himself in his 
last will, dated June 27, 1717, as a merchant, 
and it is quite possible that his legal education 
was no better than that of the average English 
squire in Fielding's time. It is evident, how- 
ever, from the testimony given above, that he 
was a strong believer in the supernatural, and 
here if anywhere we find a relationship between 
him and his more celebrated descendant. Na- 
thaniel Hawthorne was too clear-sighted to 
place confidence in the pretended revelations 

26 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

of trance mediums, and he was not in the least 
superstitious; but he was remarkably fond of 
reading ghost stories, and would have liked to 
believe them, if he could have done so in all 
sincerity. He sometimes felt as if he were a 
ghost himself, gliding noiselessly in the walks of 
men, and wondered that the sun should cast a 
shadow from him. However, we cannot imagine 
him as seated in jurisdiction at a criminal 
tribunal. His gentle nature would have re- 
coiled from that, as it might from a serpent. 

In the Charter Street burial-ground there is a 
slate gravestone, artistically carved about its 
edges, with the name, "Col. John Hathorne 
Esq., " upon it. It is somewhat sunken into the 
earth, and leans forward as if wishing to hide 
the inscription upon it from the gaze of man- 
kind. The grass about it and the moss upon 
the stone assist in doing this, although repeat- 
edly cut and cleaned away. It seems as if 
Nature wished to draw a kind of veil over the 
memory of the witch's judge, himself the sor- 
rowful victim of a theocratic oligarchy. The 
lesson we learn from his errors is, to trust our 
own hearts and not to believe too fixedly in 
the doctrines of Church and State. It must be 
a dull sensibility that can look on this old slate- 
stone without a feeling of pathos and a larger 
charity for the errors of human nature. 

It is said that one of the convicted witches 
cursed Judge Hathorne, — himself and his de- 
scendants forever; but it is more than likely 
that they all cursed him bitterly enough, and 

27 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

this curse took effect in a very natural and 
direct manner. Every extravagant political 
or social movement is followed by a correspond- 
ing reaction, even if the movement be on the 
whole a salutary one, and retribution is sure 
to fall in one shape or another on the leaders of 
it. After this time the Hathornes ceased to be 
conspicuous in Salem affairs. The family was 
not in favor, and the avenues of prosperity 
were closed to them, as commonly happens in 
such cases. Neither does the family appear to 
have multiplied and extended itself like most of 
the old New England families, who can now 
count from a dozen to twenty branches in 
various places. Of John Hathorne's three sons 
only one appears to have left children. The 
name has wholly disappeared from among 
Salem families, and thus in a manner has the 
witch's curse been fulfilled. 

Joseph Hathorne, the son of the Judge, was 
mostly a farmer, and that is all that we now 
know of him. His son Daniel, however, showed 
a more adventurous spirit, becoming a ship- 
master quite early in life. It has also been in- 
timated that he was something of a smuggler, 
which was no great discredit to him in a time 
when the unfair and even prohibitory measures 
of the British Parliament in regard to American 
commerce made smuggling a practical necessity. 
Even as the captain of a trading vessel, how- 
ever, Daniel Hathorne was not likely to advance 
the social interests of his family. It is signifi- 
cant that he should have left the central portion 

28 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

of Salem, where his ancestors had Hved, and 
have built a house for himself close to the city 
wharves, — a house well built and commodious 
enough, but not in a fashionable location. 

But Daniel Hathorne had the advantage 
over fashionable society in Salem, in being a 
thorough patriot. Boston and Salem were the 
two strongholds of Toryism during the war for 
Independence, which was natural enough, as 
their wealthy citizens were in close mercantile 
relations with English houses, and sent their 
children to England to be educated. Daniel 
Hathorne, however, as soon as hostilities had 
begun, fitted out his bark as a privateer, and 
spent the following six years in preying upon 
British merchantmen. How successful he was 
in this line of business we have not been in- 
formed, but he certainly did not grow rich by it; 
although he is credited with one engagement 
with the enemy, in which his ship came off with 
honor, though perhaps not with a decisive victory. 
This exploit was celebrated in a rude ballad of the 
time, which has been preserved in "Griswold's 
Curiosities of American Literature," and has 
at least the merit of plain unvarnished language.* 

There is a miniature portrait of Daniel Ha- 
thorne, such as was common in Copley's time, 
still in the possession of the Hawthorne family, 
and it represents him as rather a bullet-headed 
man, with a bright, open, cheery face, a broad 
English chin and strongly marked brows, — an 
excellent physiognomy for a sea-captain. He 

* Also in Lathrop's ' ' Hawthorne. " 
29 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

appears besides to have had light brown or 
sandy hair, a ruddy complexion and bright blue 
eyes; but we cannot determine how truthful 
the miniature may be in respect to coloring. 
At all events, he was of a very different appear- 
ance from Nathaniel Hawthorne, and if he 
resembled his grandson in any external respect, 
it was in his large eyes and their overshadowing 
brows. He has not the look of a dare-devil. One 
might suppose that he was a person of rather 
an obstinate disposition, but it is always diffi- 
cult to draw the line between obstinacy and 
determination. 

A similar miniature of his son Nathaniel, 
born in 1775, and who died at Surinam in his 
thirty-fourth year, gives us the impression of a 
person somewhat like his father, and also some- 
what like his son Nathaniel. He has a long face 
instead of a round one, and his features are 
more delicate and refined than those of the bold 
Daniel. The expression is gentle, dreamy and 
pensive, and unless the portrait belies him, he 
could not have been the stern, domineering 
captain that he has been represented. He had 
rather a slender figure, and was probably much 
more like his mother, who was a Miss Phelps, 
than the race of Judge Hathorne, He may have 
been a reticent man, but never a bold one, and 
we find in him a new departure. His face is 
more amiable and attractive than his father's, 
but not so strong. In 1799 he was married to 
Miss Elizabeth Clarke Manning, the daughter 
of Richard Manning, and then only nineteen 

30 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

years of age. She appears to have been an ex- 
ceptionally sensitive and rather shy young 
woman — such as would be likely to attract the 
attention of a chivalrous young mariner — but 
with fine traits of intellect and character. 

The maternal ancestry of a distinguished man 
is quite as important as the paternal, but in 
the present instance it is much more difficult to 
obtain information concerning it. The increas- 
ing fame of Hawthorne has been like a calcium- 
light, illuminating for the past fifty years every- 
thing to which that name attaches, and leaving 
the Manning family in a shadow so much the 
deeper. All we can learn of them now is, that 
they were descended from Richard Manning, of 
Dartmouth in Devonshire, England, whose son 
Thomas emigrated to Salem with his widowed 
mother in 1679, but afterwards removed to 
Ipswich, ten miles to the north, whence the 
family has since extended itself far and wide, — 
the Reverend Jacob M. Manning, of the Old 
South Church, the fearless champion of practical 
anti-slaveryism, having been among them. It 
appears that Thomas's grandson Richard started 
in life as a blacksmith, which was no strange 
thing in those primitive times; but, being a 
thrifty and enterprising man, he lived to estab- 
lish a line of stage-coaches between Salem and 
Boston, and this continued in the possession of 
his family until it was superseded by the Eastern 
Railway. After this catastrophe, Robert Man- 
ning, the son of Richard and brother of Mrs. 
Nathaniel Hathorne, became noted as a fruit- 

31 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

grower (a business in which Essex County people 
have always taken an active interest), and was 
one of the founders of the Massachusetts Horti- 
cultural Society. The Mannings were always 
respected in Salem, although they never came 
to affluent circumstances, nor did they own a 
house about the city common. Robert Manning, 
Jr., was Secretary of the Horticultural Society 
in Boston for a long term of years, a pleasant, 
kindly man, with an aspect of general culture. 
Hawthorne's maternal grandmother was Miriam 
Lord, of Ipswich, and his paternal grandmother 
was Rachel Phelps, of Salem. His father was 
only thirty- three when he died at Surinam. 

In regard to the family name, there are at 
present Hawthornes and Hathornes in England, 
and although the two names may have been 
identical originally, they have long since become 
as distinct as Smith and Smythe. I have dis- 
covered only two instances in which the first 
William Hathorne wrote his own name, and in the 
various documents at the State House in which 
it appears vmtten by others, it is variously 
spelled Hathorn, Hathorne, Hawthorn, Hay- 
thorne, and Harthorne, — from which we can only 
conclude that the a was pronounced broadly. 
It was not until the reign of Queen Anne, 
when books first became cheap and popular, 
that there was any decided spelling of either 
proper or common names. Then the printers 
took the matter into their own hands and made 
witch-work enough of it. The word " sovereign," 
for instance, which is derived from the old 

32 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

French souvrain, and which Milton spelled 
"sovran, " they tortured into its present form, — 
much as the clerks of Massachusetts Colony 
tortured the name of William Hathorne. This, 
however, was spelled Hathorne oftener than in 
other ways, and it was so spelled in the two 
signatures above referred to, one of which was 
attached as witness to a deed for the settlement 
of the boundary between Lynn and Salem,* 
and the other to a report of the commissioners 
for the investigation of the French vessels 
coming to Salem and Boston in 1651, the two 
other commissioners being Samuel Bradstreet 
and David Denison.t The name was undoubt- 
edly Hathorne, and so it continued with one 
or two slight variations during the eighteenth 
century down to the time of Nathaniel Ha- 
thorne, Jr., who entered and graduated at 
Bowdoin College under that name, but who 
soon afterward changed it to Hawthorne, for 
reasons that have never been explained. 

All cognomens would seem to have been 
derived originally from some personal peculiarity, 
although it is no longer possible to trace this 
back to its source, which probably lies far away 
in the Dark Ages, — the formative period of 
languages and of families. Sometimes, how- 
ever, we meet with individuals whose peculiari- 
ties suggest the origin of their names: a tall, 
slender, long-necked man named Crane; or a 
timid, retiring student named Leverett; or an 

* Towne Genealogy, i. 40. 
t Massachusetts Archives, x. 171. 
3 33 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

over-confident, supercilious person called God- 
kin In the name of Hawthorne also we may 
imagine a curious significance: "When the may- 
is on the thorn," says Tennyson. The English 
country people call the flowering of the haw- 
thorn "the may." It is a beautiful tree when 
in full bloom. How sweet-scented and delicately 
colored are its blossoms! But it seems to say 
to us, "Do not come too close to me." 



34 



CHAPTER II 
Boyhood of Hawthorne : 1804-182 1 

Salem treasures the memory of Hawthorne, 
and preserves everything tangible relating to 
him. The house in which he was born, No. 27 
Union Street, is in much the same style and 
probably of the same age as the Old Manse at 
Concord, but somewhat smaller, with only a 
single window on either side of the doorway — five 
windows in all on the front, one large chimney in 
the centre, and the roof not exactly a gambrel, for 
the true gambrel has a curve first inward and 
then outward, but something like it. A modest, 
cosy and rather picturesque dwelling, which if 
placed on a green knoll with a few trees about it 
might become a subject for a sketching class. 
It did not belong to Hawthorne's father, after 
all, but to the widow of the bold Daniel. It 
was the cradle of genius, and is now a shrine 
for many pilgrims. Long may it survive, so 
that our grandchildren may gaze upon it. 

Here Nathaniel Hawthorne first saw daylight 
one hundred years ago * on the Fourth of July, as 
if to make a protest against Chauvinistic patri- 
otism ; here his mother sat at the window to 
see her husband's bark sail out of the harbor 
on his last voyage ; and here she watched day 
after day for its return, only to bring a life-long 

* 1804. 
35 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

sorrow with it. The life of a sea-captain's wife 
is always a half -widowhood, but Mrs. Hathorne 
was left at twenty-eight with three small children, 
including a daughter, Elizabeth, older than 
Nathaniel, and another, Louisa, the youngest. 
The shadow of a heavy misfortune had come 
upon them, and from this shadow they never 
wholly escaped. 

Low^ell criticised a letter which John Brown 
wrote concerning his boyhood to Henry L. 
Stearns, as the finest bit of autobiography of 
the nineteenth century.* It is in fact almost 
the only literature of the kind that we possess. 
A frequent difficulty that parents find in dealing 
with their children is, that they have wholly 
forgotten the sensations and impressions of 
their own childhood. The instructor cannot 
place himself in the position of the pupil. A 
naturalist will spend years with a microscope 
studying the development of a plant from the 
seed, but no one has ever applied a similar proc- 
ess to the budding of genius or even of ordinary 
intellect. We have the autobiography of one of 
the greatest geniuses, written in the calm and 
stillness of old age, when youthful memories come 
back to us involuntarily; yet he barely lifts 
the veil from his own childhood, and has much 
more to say of external events and older people 
than of himself and his young companions. 
How valuable is the story of George Washington 
and his hatchet, hackneyed as it has become! 
What do we know of the boyhood of Franklin, 

* North American Review, April, i860. 
36 



c. $ 




NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

Webster, Seward and Longfellow? Nothing, 
or next to nothing. 

Goethe says that the admirable woman is she 
who, when her husband dies, becomes a father 
to his children; but in the case of Hawthorne's 
mother, this did not happen to be necessary. 
Her brother, Robert Manning, a thrifty and 
fairly prosperous young man, immediately took 
Mrs. Hathorne and her three children into his 
house on Herbert Street, and made it essentially 
a home for them afterward. To the fatherless boy 
he was more than his own father, away from 
home ten months of the year, ever could have 
been; and though young Nathaniel must have 
missed that tenderness of feeling which a man 
can only entertain toward his own child, there 
was no lack of kindness or consideration on 
Robert Manning's part, to either the boy or 
his sisters. 

It was Mrs. Hathorne who chiefly suffered 
from this change of domicile. She would seem 
to have been always on good terms with her 
brother's wife, and on the whole they formed a 
remarkably harmonious family, — at least we 
hear nothing to the contrary, — but she was no 
longer mistress of her own household. She had 
her daughters to instruct, and to train up in 
domestic ways, and she could be helpful in 
various matters, large and small ; but the mental 
occupation which comes from the oversight 
and direction of household affairs, and which 
might have served to divert her mind from 
sorrowful memories, was now gone from her. 

37 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

Her widowhood separated her from the outside 
world and from all society, excepting a few de- 
voted friends,* so that under these conditions it 
is not surprising that her life became continually 
more secluded and reserved. It is probable 
that her temperament was very similar to her 
son's; but the impression which has gone forth, 
that she indulged her melancholy to an excess, 
is by no means a just one. The circumstances 
of her case should be taken into consideration, 

Rebecca Manning says: 

" I remember aunt Hawthorne as busy about 
the house, attending to various matters. Her 
cooking was excellent, and she was noted for a 
certain kind of sauce, which nobody else knew 
how to make. We always enjoyed going to 
see her when we were children, for she took 
great pains to please us and to give us nice 
things to eat. Her daughter Elizabeth resem- 
bled her in that respect. In old letters and 
in the journal of another aunt, which has come 
into our possession, we read of her going about 
making visits, taking drives, and sometimes 
going on a journey. In later years she was 
not well, and I do not remember that she ever 
came here, but her friends always received a 
cordial welcome when they visited her. " 

This refers to a late period of Madam Ha- 
thorne's life, and if she absented herself from 
the table, as Elizabeth Peabody states,! there 
was good reason for it. 

*Wide Awake, xxxiii. 502. 

t Lathrop's "Study of Hawthorne." 

38 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

Hawthorne himself has left no word concern- 
ing his mother, of favorable or unfavorable 
import, but it seems probable that he owed his 
genius to her, if he can be said to have owed it 
to any of his ancestors. In after life he affirmed 
that his sister Elizabeth, who appears to have 
been her mother over again, could have written 
as well as he did, and although we have no pal- 
pable evidence of this — and the letter which she 
wrote Elizabeth Peabody does not indicate it, — 
we are willing to take his word for it. With 
the shyness and proud reserve which he inherited 
from his mother, there also came that exquisite 
refinement and feminine grace of style which 
forms the chief charm of his writing. The same 
refinement of feeling is noticeable in the letters 
of other members of the Manning family. Where 
his imagination came from, it would be useless 
to speculate; but there is no good art without 
delicacy. 

Doctor Nathaniel Peabody lived near the 
house on Herbert Street, and his daughter 
Elizabeth (who afterward became a woman of 
prodigious learning) soon made acquaintance 
with the Hathorne children. She remembers 
the boy Nathaniel jumping about his imcle's 
yard, and this is the first picture that we have 
of him. When we consider what a beautiful boy 
he must have been, with his wavy brown hair, 
large wistful eyes and vigorous figure, without 
doubt he was a pleasure to look upon. We do not 
hear of him again until November lo, 1813, 
when he injured his foot in some unknown 

39 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

manner while at play, and was made lame by it 
more or less for the three years succeeding. 
After being laid up for a month, he wrote this 
pathetic little letter to his uncle, Robert Man- 
ning, then in Maine, which I have punctuated 
properly so that the excellence of its composition 
may appeal more plainly to the reader. 

"Salem, Thursday, December, 1813. 
"Dear Uncle: 
" I hope you are well, and I hope Richard is too. My foot 
is no better. Louisa has got so well that she has begun to 
go to school, but she did not go this forenoon because it 
snowed. Mama is going to send for Doctor Kitridge to- 
day, when William Cross comes home at 12 o'clock, and 
maybe he will do some good, for Doctor Barstow has not, 
and I don't know as Doctor Kitridge will. It is about 4 
weeks yesterday since I have been to school, and I don't 
know but it will be 4 weeks longer before I go again. I have 
been out of the office two or three times and have set down 
on the step of the door, and once I hopped out into the 
street. Yesterday I went out in the office and had 4 cakes. 
Hannah carried me out once, but not then. Elizabeth and 
Louisa send their love to you. I hope you will write to 
me soon, but I have nothing more to write; so good-bye, 
dear Uncle. 

"Your affectionate Nephew, 

"Nathaniel Hathorne."* 

This is not so precocious as Mozart's musical 
compositions at the same age, but how could 
the boy Hawthorne have given a clearer ac- 
count of himself and his situation at the time, 
without one word of complaint? It is worth 
noting also that his prediction in regard to Doctor 
Kitridge proved to be correct and even more. 

* Elizabeth Manning in Wide Awake, Nov. 1891. 
40 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

It is evident that neither of his doctors treated 
him in a physiological manner. Kitridge was 
a water-cure physician, and his method of treat- 
ment deserves to be recorded for its novelty. 
He directed Nathaniel to project his naked foot 
out of a sitting-room window, while he poured 
cold water on it from the story above. This, 
however, does not appear to have helped the 
case, and the infirmity continued so long that 
it was generally feared that his lameness would 
be permanent. 

Horatio Bridge considered this a fortunate 
accident for Nathaniel, since it prevented him 
from being spoiled by his female relatives, as 
there is always danger that an only son with 
two or more sisters will be spoiled. But it was 
an advantage to the boy in a different manner 
from this. He learned from it the lesson of suffer- 
ing and endurance, which we all have to learn 
sooner or later; and it compelled him, perhaps 
too young, to seek the comfort of life from in- 
ternal sources. There were excellent books in 
the house, — Shakespeare and Milton, of course, 
but also Pope's " Iliad," Thomson's "Seasons," 
the "Spectator," "Pilgrim's Progress," and 
the " Faerie Queene, " and the time had now come 
when these would be serviceable to him. He 
was not the only boy that has enjoyed Shake- 
speare at the age of ten, but that he should have 
found interest in Spenser's "Faerie Queene "is 
somewhat exceptional. Even among professed 
litterateurs there are few that read that long 
allegory, and still fewer who enjoy it; and yet 

41 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

Miss Manning assures us that Hawthorne would 
muse over it for hours. Its influence may be 
perceptible in some of his shorter stories, but 
"Pilgrim's Progress" evidently had an effect 
upon him; and so had Scott's novels, as we 
may judge from the first romance that he pub- 
lished. 

At the age of twelve years and seven months 
he composed a short poem, so perfect in form 
and mature in judgment that it is difficult to 
believe that so young a person could have writ- 
ten it. Not so poetic as it is philosophical, it 
is valuable as indicating that the boy had al- 
ready formed a moral axis for himself, — a life 
principle from which he never afterward deviated ; 
and it is given herewith:* 

" MODERATE VIEWS. 

"With passions unruffled, untainted by pride, 

By reason my life let me square; • 
The wants of my nature are cheaply supplied, 

And the rest are but folly and care. 
How vainly through infinite trouble and strife, 

The many their labours employ, 
Since all, that is truly delightful in life. 

Is what all if they please may enjoy. 

"Nathaniel Hathorne. 
"Salem, February 13, 1817." 

He wrote this with the greatest nicety, framing 
it in broad black lines, and ornamenting the 
capitals in a manner that recalls the decoration 
of John Hathorne's gravestone. He composed 

* A facsimile of the original can be found in Wide Awake, 
November, 1891. 

42 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

a number of poems between his thirteenth and 
seventeenth years, quite as good as those of 
Longfellow at the same age ; but after he entered 
Bowdoin College he dropped the practice al- 
together and never resumed it, although one 
would suppose that Longfellow's example 
would have stimulated him to better efforts. 
Neither does he appear to have tried his hand in 
writing tales, as boys who have no thought of 
literary distinction frequently do. During the 
years of his lameness he sometimes invented 
extemporaneous stories, which invariably com- 
menced with a voyage to some foreign country, 
from which his hero never returned. This shows 
how continually his father's fate was in his 
mind, although he said nothing of it. 

Robert Manning's interest in the stage-com- 
pany afforded the boy fine opportunities for 
free rides, and he probably also frequented the 
stables ; although neither as youth nor as man 
did he take much interest in driving or riding. 
He was more fond of playing upon the wharves, 
a good healthy place, — and watching the great 
ships sailing forth to far-off lands, and returning 
with their strange cargoes, — enough to stimu- 
late any boy's imagination, if he has it in him. 
It is likely that if Nathaniel's father had lived, 
he would also have followed a seafaring life, 
and would never have become useful to the 
world in the way that he did. 

Somewhere about the close of the eighteenth 
century, Richard Manning, the father of Mrs. 
Hathorne, purchased a large tract of land in 

43 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

Cumberland County, Maine, between Lake 
Sebago and the town of Casco; and in 1813 
Robert Manning built a house near the lake, in 
the township of Raymond, and his brother 
Richard, who had become much of an invalid, 
went to live there, partly for his health and partly 
to keep an oversight on the property. In 18 17 
Mrs. Hathorne also went there, taking her 
children with her, and remaining, with some in- 
termissions, until 1822. Meanwhile the Mannings 
sold some thousands of acres of land, although 
not, as we may suppose, at very good prices, and 
the name of Elizabeth Hathorne was repeatedly 
attached to the deeds of conveyance. The house 
that Robert built was the plainest sort of struc- 
ture, of only two stories, and with no appearance 
of having been painted; but the farmers in the 
vicinity criticised it as "Manning's folly," — 
exactly why, does not appear clearly, unless 
they foresaw what actually happened, that the 
house could be neither sold nor rented after the 
Mannings had left it. For many years, it served 
as a meeting-house, — one could not call it a 
church, — and now it has become a Hawthorne 
museum, the town of Raymond very laudably 
keeping it in repair. 

Although none of the events in the early life 
of Hawthorne ought to be considered positive 
misfortunes, as they all contributed to make 
him what he was, yet upon general principles it 
is much to be regretted that he should have 
passed the best years of his boyhood in this out- 
of-the-way place. His good uncle supplied him 

44 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

with a boat and a gun, and he enjoyed the small 
shooting, fishing, sailing and skating that the 
place afforded; but in later years he wrote to 
Bridge, "It was at Sebago that I learned my 
cursed habit of solitude," and this pursued him 
through life like an evil genius, placing him con- 
tinually at a disadvantage with his fellow-men. 
It has been supposed that this mode of life 
assisted in developing his individuality, but quite 
as strong individualities have been developed in 
the midst of large cities. "Speech is more re- 
freshing than light." 

When will parents learn wisdom in regard to 
their children? A conscientious, tender-hearted 
boy will be sent to a rough country school, to be 
scoffed at and maltreated there, before he is 
twelve years old; while another of a coarser 
and harder nature will be kept at home, to be 
petted and pampered until all the vigor and 
manliness are sapped out of him. Parents who 
prefer to live in a modest, humble manner, in 
order that their children may have better ad- 
vantages, deserve the highest commendation, 
but in this respect good instruction is less im- 
portant than favorable associations. From 
fourteen to twenty-one is the formative period of 
character, and the influences which may be 
brought to bear on the growing mind are of the 
highest importance. Lake Sebago served as an 
excellent gymnasium for young Hawthorne, and 
may have helped to develop his sense of the 
beautiful, but he found few companions there, 
and those not of the most suitable kind. He 

45 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

was exceedingly fond of skating — so much so 
that when the ice was smooth he sometimes 
remained on the lake far into the night. This 
we can envy him, for skating is the poetry of 
motion. 

The captain of the "Hawthorne," which 
plies back and forth across the lake in summer, 
regularly points out to his passengers the house 
where the Hathornes lived. It is easily seen 
from the steamer, — a severely plain, unpainted 
building, in appearance much like the Manning 
house on Herbert Street. Nearly in line with 
it a great cliff -like rock juts out from the centre 
of the lake, on which the Indians centuries ago 
etched and painted great warlike figures, whose 
significance is now known to no one. It is said 
that Hawthorne frequently sailed or rowed to 
Indian Rock, and to a sort of grotto there which 
was large enough for his boat to enter. Both 
the rock and the Manning house are now diffi- 
cult of access. Longfellow wrote a pretty de- 
scriptive poem of a voyage on Sebago, and it is 
remarkable how he has made use of every 
feature of the landscape, every incident of the 
excursion, to fill his verses. The lake has much 
the shape of an hour-glass, the northern and 
southern portions being connected by a winding 
strait, so crooked that it requires the constant 
effort of the pilot to prevent the little steamer 
from running aground. There used to be fine 
fishing in it, — large perch, bass, and a species 
of fresh-water salmon often weighing from six 
to eight pounds. 

46. 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

Strangely enough, one of Hawthorne's ac- 
quaintances on the shores of Sebago was a 
mulatto boy named William Symmes, the son 
of a Virginia slave, foisted by his father 
upon a Maine sea-captain named Britton, who 
lived in the half-wilderness around Raymond. 
Symmes afterwards became a sailor, and con- 
tinued in that vocation until the Civil War, 
when he went to live in Alexandria, Va. In 
1870 he published in the Portland Transcript 
what pretended to be a series of extracts from 
a diary which young Hawthorne had kept while 
at Raymond, and which was found there, after 
the departure of the Manning family, by a man 
named Small, while moving a load of furniture 
which had been sold to another party. Small 
preserved it until 1864, and then made a present 
of it to Symmes. 

Doubts have been cast on the genuineness of 
this diary, as was natural enough under the 
circumstances; for the original manuscript was 
never produced by Symmes, who died the fol- 
lowing year, and no one knows what has become 
of it. It may also be asked, why should Small 
have disposed so readily of this manuscript to 
Symmes after preserving it sedulously for more 
than forty years? Why did he not return it to 
its rightful owner; or, if he felt ashamed of his 
original abstraction, why did not Symmes 
restore it to the Hawthorne family after Haw- 
thorne's death, when every newspaper in the 
country was celebrating Ha^vthome's genius? 
It also might have occtirred to one of them that 

47 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

such property would have a marketable value, 
and could be disposed of at a high price to some 
collector of literary curiosities; but Symmes 
did not even ask to be remunerated for the por- 
tion that he contributed to the Portland Tran- 
script. Neither did he harbor the slightest ill 
feeling toward Hawthorne, whom he claimed 
to have met several times in the course of his 
wanderings, — once at Salem, and again at 
Liverpool, — and was always treated by him 
with exceptional kindness and civility. 

The only answer that can be made to these 
queries is, that men in Symmes 's position in 
life do not act according to any method that 
can be previously calculated. In a case like the 
present, there could be no predicting it; and 
it is possible that this mulatto valued the diary 
above all price, as a souvenir of the one white 
man who had ever been kind and good to him. 
Who knows what a heart there may have been 
in William Symmes? 

The internal evidence of this diary is so 
strongly in its favor as to be almost conclusive. 
Lathrop, who made a special study of it, 
says: 

"The fabrication of the journal by a person 
possessed of some literary skill and familiar 
with the localities mentioned, at dates so long 
ago as 1816 to 1819, might not be an impossible 
feat, but it is an extremely improbable one." 

To which it might be added, that it could be 
only a Hawi;horne that could accomplish such a 
fabrication. Few things in literature are more 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

difficult than to make a boy talk like a boy, and 
the tone of this Sebago journal is not only boyish, 
but sweet and pleasant to the ear, such as we 
might imagine the talk of the youthful Haw- 
thorne. Not only this, but there is a gradated 
improvement of intelligence in the course of it, 
— rather too much so for entire credibility. It 
is quite possible that there is more of it than 
Hawthorne ever wrote, but that does not pre- 
vent us from having faith in the larger portion 
of it. The purity of its diction, the nice adap- 
tation of each word to its purpose, and the 
accuracy of detail are much in its favor; be- 
sides which, the personal reflections in it are 
exactly like Hawthorne. The published portion 
of the diary in Mr. Pickard's book makes about 
fifty rather small pages, but no dates are given 
except at the close, and that is August, 1818; 
and as Hawthorne went to Sebago for the first 
time the preceding year, we may presume that 
this note-book represents a winter and summer 
vacation, during which he would seem to have 
enjoyed himself in a healthy boyish fashion. 
We have only space for a few extracts from this 
publication, which serve both to exemplify 
Hawthorne's mode of life at Raymond and to 
illustrate the preceding statement concerning 
the book. 

The first observation in the diary is quoted 
by Lathrop, and has a decidedly youthful tone. 

"Two kingbirds have built their nest between our house 
and the mill-pond. The male is more courageous than 
any creature that I know about. He seems to have taken 

4 49 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

possession of the territory from the great pond to the small 
one, and goes out to war with every fish-hawk that flies from 
one to the other over his dominion. The fish-hawks must 
be miserable cowards to be driven by such a speck of a 
bird. I have not yet seen one turn to defend himself." 

Kingbirds are the knights-errant of the 
feathered tribes. They never attack another 
bird unless it is three times their own size; but 
when a few years older, the boy Hawthorne 
would probably have noticed that the king- 
birds' powers of flight are so superior that all 
other birds are practically at their mercy. 
This fixes the date of the entry in the early 
summer of 1817, for kingbirds are not bellig- 
erent except during the nesting season. Some- 
what later in the year he writes: 

"Went yesterday in a sail -boat on the Great Pond 
with Mr. Peter White, of Windham. He sailed up here 
from White's Bridge to see Captain Dingley, and invited 
Joseph Dingley and Mr. Ring to take a boat-ride out to the 
Dingley Islands and to the Images. He was also kind 
enough to say that I might go, with my mother's consent, 
which she gave after much coaxing. Since the loss of my 
father, she dreads to have any one belonging to her go upon 
the water. It is strange that this beautiful body of water is 
called a ' pond. ' The geography tells of many in Scotland 
and Ireland, not near so large, that are called 'Lakes.'" 

Notice his objection to bad nomenclature, 
and his school-boy argument against it. In his 
account of this excursion he says further : 

"After we got ashore, Mr. White allowed me to fire his 
long gun at a mark. I did not hit the mark, and am not sure 
that I saw it at the time the gun went off, but believe rather 
that I was watching for the noise that I was about to make. 

50 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

Mr. Ring said that with practice I coiald be a gunner, and 
that now, with a very heavy charge, he thought I could kill 
a horse at eight paces!" 

Here or nowhere do we recognize the budding 
of Hawthorne's genius. This clear introspec- 
tive analysis is the foundation of all true mental 
power, and Hawthorne might have become a 
Platonic philosopher, if he had not preferred to 
be a story-teller. 

These sports came to an end in the autumn 
when he was sent to study with the Reverend 
Caleb Bradley, a somewhat eccentric graduate 
of Harvard, who resided at Stroudwater, 
Maine, and with whom he remained during the 
winter.* He refers to this period of tuition in 
the short story of " The Vision of the Fountain, " 
and whether or no any such vision appeared to 
him, we can fairly believe that the tale was 
suggested by some pretty school-girl who made 
an impression on him, only to disappear in a 
tantalizing manner. It is to be presumed that 
he returned to his mother at Raymond, for 
Christmas ; and at that time he heard a story of 
how an Otisfield man named Henry Turner had 
killed three hibernating bears which he dis- 
covered in a cave near Moose Pond, not a difficult 
feat when one comes upon them in that torpid 
condition. This would place the killing of the 
bears at about the first of December, which 
would be probable enough, and the fact itself 
has been substantiated by Samuel Pickard. 

*S. T. Pickard's "Hawthorne's First Diary." 
51 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

The next succeeding entry relates to the 
drowning of a boy while swimming, which 
could only have happened the following June. 
Mrs. Hathorne was greatly alarmed, and ob- 
jected to Nathaniel's going in bathing with the 
other boys. He did not like the restriction, 
but writes that he shall obey his mother. 

There is a ghost story in the diary, quite 
original, and told with an air of excellent credi- 
bility; and also a short anthropomorphic 
romance concerning a badly treated horse, full 
of genuine pathos and kindly sympathy, — 
more sympathetic, in fact, than Hawthorne's 
later stories, in which he is sometimes almost 
too reserved and unemotional: 

" 'Good morning, Mr. Horse, how are you to-day?' 
'Good morning, youngster,' said he, just as plain as a 
horse can speak, and then said, 'I am almost dead, and 
I wish I was quite. I am hungry, have had no breakfast 
and stand here tied by the head while they are grinding the 
corn, and until master drinks two or three glasses of rum at 
the store, and then drag him and the meal up the Ben 
Ham hill, and home, and am now so weak that I can hardly 
stand. Oh, dear, I am in a bad way,' and the old creature 
cried, — I almost cried myself. " 

The only difficulty in believing this diary 
to be genuine is the question: If Hawthorne 
could write with such perspicuity at fourteen, 
why are there no evidences of it during his col- 
lege years ? But it sometimes happens so. 

We cannot refrain from quoting one more 
extract from the last entry in the Sebago diary, 
so beautifully tender and considerate as it is 

52 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

of his mother's position toward her only son. 
He had been invited by a party of their neigh- 
bors to go on an all-day excursion, and though 
his mother grants his request to be allowed to join 
them, he feels the reluctance with which she 
does so and he writes: 

"She said ' Yes, ' but I was almost sorry, knowing that my 
day's pleasure would cost her one of anxiety. However, I 
gathered up my hooks and lines, with some white salted 
pork for bait, and with a fabulous number of biscuit, split 
in the middle, the insides well buttered, then skilfully 
put together again, and all stowed in sister's large work- 
bag, and slung over my shoulder, I started, making a wager 
with Enoch White, as we walked down to the boat, as to 
which could catch the largest number of fish."* 

This is the only entry that is dated (August, 
1818), and as it was on this same occasion that 
the black ducks were shot, it must have been on 
one of the last days of August. We may pre- 
sume that Nathaniel returned to his studies at 
Stroud water the following month, for we do 
not hear of him again at Raymond — or in Salem, 
either — until March 24, when he writes to his 
uncle, Robert Manning, who has evidently just 
returned from Raymond to Salem, and speaks of 
expecting to go to Portland with a Mr. Linch 
for the day. On May 16, 18 19, he writes to his 
uncle Robert again: 

' ' The grass and trees are green, the fences finished and the 
garden planted. Two of the goats are on the island and the 
other kept for the milk. I have shot a partridge and a hen- 
hawk and caught eighteen large trout [probably Sebago 
salmon]. I am sorry that my uncle intends sending me to 
school again, for my mother can hardly spare me. " 

* Appendix A. 
Si 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

From which it is easy to infer that he had 
not attended school very regularly of late, and 
Uncle Robert would seem to have concluded 
that it would be better to have his fine nephew 
where he could personally supervise his goings 
and comings. Accordingly, on July 26 we find 
Nathaniel attending school in Salem, — a most 
unusual season for it, — and although his mother 
remained at Raymond two years longer, he 
was not permitted to return there again, except 
possibly for short periods. 

Emerson once pointed out to me on Sud- 
bury Street, Boston, an extremely old man 
with long white locks and the face of a devoted 
scholar, advancing toward us with slow and 
cautious steps. "That," said he, "is Doctor 
Worcester, the lexicographer." Hawthorne's 
early education remains much of a mystery. 
In 1819 he complains in a letter to his mother 
that he has to go to a cheap school, — a good 
indication that he did not intend to trust to 
fortune for his future welfare; soon after this 
we hear that dictionary Worcester is his chief 
instructor. He could not have found a more 
amiable or painstaking pedagogue; nor is it 
likely that the fine qualities of his teacher were 
ever better appreciated. Hawthorne himself 
says nothing of this, for it was not his way to 
express admiration for man or woman, but we 
can believe that he felt the same affection for 
the doctor that well-behaved boys commonly 
do for their old masters. It was from Worcester 
that he derived his excellent knowledge of 

54 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

Latin, the single study of which he was fond; 
and it is his preference for words derived from 
the Latin which gives grace and flexibility to 
Hawthorne's style, as the force and severity 
of Emerson's style come from his partiality 
for Saxon words. During his last year at 
school, Hawthorne took private lessons of a 
Salem lawyer, Benjamin Oliver, and perhaps 
studied with him altogether at the finish. 

Hawthorne's life had been so irregular for 
years that it is creditable to him that he 
should have succeeded in entering college at 
all. We hear of him at Sebago in winter and 
at Salem in July, He writes to his Uncle Robert 
to look out for the shot-gun which he left in a 
closet at Sebago, and which has a rather heavy 
charge of powder in it. He appears to have 
found as little companionship in Salem as he 
did in that wilderness, — the natural effect of 
such a life. He may have been acquainted 
with half the boys in Salem, but he did not make 
any warm friends among them. His sister 
Louisa, who was a more vivacious person than 
Elizabeth, was his chief companion and comfort. 
Seated at the window with her on simimer even- 
ings, he elaborated the plan of an imaginary 
society, a club of two, called the "Pin Society," 
to which all fees, assessments and fines were 
paid in pins, — then made by hand and much 
more expensive than now. He constituted 
himself its secretary, and wTote imaginary 
reports of its proceedings, in which Louisa is 
frequently fined for absence from meetings. 

55 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

We do not hear of their going to parties or dances 
with other children. 

In August, 1820, he started an imaginary 
newspaper called the Spectator, which he wrote 
himself with some help from Louisa, and of 
which there was only one copy of each number. 
He continued this through five successive issues, 
and we trace in its pages the commencement of 
Hawthorne's peculiar humor, — too quiet and 
gentle to make us laugh, but with a penetrating 
tinge of pathos. Take for instance the following: 

"There is no situation in life more irksome than that 
of an editor who is obliged to find amusement for his 
Readers, from a head which is too often (as is the present 
predicament with our own) filled with emptiness. Since 
commencing this paper, we have received no communica- 
tion of any kind, so that the whole weight of the business 
devolves upon our own shoulders, a load far too great for 
them to bear. We hope the Public will reflect on these 
grievances.'! 

This is true fiction, and Nathaniel was not 
the first or the last editor to whom the state- 
ment has applied. His difficulties are imagi- 
nary, but he realizes what they might be in 
reality. 

In another number he says: 

"We know of no news, either domestic or foreign, and we 
hope our readers will excuse our not inserting any. The 
law which prohibits paying debts when a person has no 
money will apply in this case." 

Then he makes this quiet hit against the 
56 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

people of Maine for having separated themselves 
and their territory from Massachusetts: 

"By a gentleman in the state of Maine, we learn that a 
famine is seriously apprehended owing to the want of rain. 
Potatoes could not be procured in some places. When 
children break their leading strings, and run away from their 
Parent, (as Maine has done) they may expect sometimes to 
suffer hunger."* 

Of his religious instruction we hear nothing; 
but church-going in New England during the 
first forty years of the nineteenth century was 
wellnigh universal, and it makes little difference 
now to which of the various forms of Calvinistic 
worship the Manning family subscribed. That 
young Hawthorne was seriously impressed in 
this way is evident from the following ode, 
which he may have composed as early as his 
fifteenth year: 

"Oh, I have roamed in rapture wild 
Where the majestic rocks are piled 
In lonely, stern, magnificence around 
The troubled ocean's steadfast bound; 
And I have seen the storms arise 
And darkness veil from mortal eyes 
The Heavens that shine so fair and bright. 
And all was solemn, silent night. 
Then I have seen the storm disperse. 
And Mercy hush the whirlwind fierce, 
And all my soul in transport owned 
There is a God, in Heaven enthroned." 

There is more of a rhetorical flourish than of 
serious religious feeling in this; but genuine 
piety is hardly to be expected, and not greatly 

*Wide Awake, xxxiii. 512. 
57 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

to be desired, in a boy of that age. It represents 
the desire to be religious, and to express some- 
thing, he knows not what. 

Nathaniel Hawthorne had already decided 
on his vocation in life before he entered Bowdoin 
College, — a decision which he afterwards ad- 
hered to with inflexible determination, in spite 
of the most discouraging obstacles. In a mem- 
orable letter to his mother, written March 13, 
182 1, he says: 

" I am quite reconciled to going to college, 
since I am to spend my vacations with you. 
Yet four years of the best part of my life is a 
great deal to throw away. I have not yet con- 
cluded what profession I shall have. The being 
a minister is of course out of the question. I 
shall not think that even you could desire me 
to choose so dull a way of life. Oh, no, mother, 
I was not born to vegetate forever in one place, 
and to live and die as tranquil as — a puddle 
of water. As to lawyers, there are so many 
of them already that one-half of them (upon 
a moderate calculation) are in a state of actual 
starvation. A physician, then, seems to be 
' Hobson's choice ' ; but yet I should not like 
to live by the diseases and infirmities of my 
fellow-creatures. And it would weigh very 
hardly on my conscience, in the course of my 
practice, if I should chance to send any un- 
lucky patient 'ad infernum,' which, being 
interpreted, is 'to the realms below.' Oh 
that I was rich enough to live without profes- 
sion! What do you think of my becoming an 

58 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

author, and relying for support upon my pen? 
Indeed. I think the illegibility of my hand is 
very author-like." * 

Such were the Ides of March for Hawthorne, 
It was no boyish ambition for public distinction, 
nor a vain grasping at the laurel wreath, but a 
calmly considered and clear-sighted judgment. 

* Conway, 24. 



59 



CHAPTER III 
BowDOiN College: 1821-1825. 

The life of man is not like a game of chess, in 
which the two players start upon equal terms and 
can deliberate sufficiently over every move; 
but more like whist, in which the cards we hold 
represent our fortunes at the beginning, but the 
result of the game depends also on the skill 
wdth which we play it. Life also resembles 
whist in this, that we are obliged to follow suit 
in a general way to those who happen to have 
the lead. 

Why Hawthorne should have entered Bowdoin 
College instead of Harvard has not been ex- 
plained, nor is it easily explained. The stand- 
ard of scholarship maintained at Harvard 
and Yale has always been higher than that at 
what Doctor Holmes designated as the "fresh- 
water colleges," and this may have proved an 
unfavorable difference to the mind of a young 
man who was not greatly inclined to his studies ; 
but Harvard College is only eighteen miles from 
Salem, and he could have returned to his home 
once a week if he had chosen to do so, and this 
is a decided moral and social advantage to a 
young man in those risky years. If Hawthorne 
had entered Harvard in the next class to Em- 
erson, he could not well have escaped the latter's 
attention, and would have come in contact 

60 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

with other vigorous and stimulating minds; 
but it is of Httle use to speculate on what might 
have been. 

Boys are encouraged to study for college by 
accounts of the rare enjoyment of university 
life, but they commonly find the first term of 
Freshman year both dismal and discouraging. 
Their class is a medley of strangers, their studies 
are a dry routine, and if they are not hazed by 
the Sophomores, they are at least treated by 
them with haughtiness and contempt. It is 
still summer when they arrive, but the leaves 
soon fall from the trees, and their spirits fall 
with them. 

Hawthorne may have felt this more acutely 
than any other member of his class, and in 
addition to the prevailing sense of discomfort 
he was seized early in November with that dis- 
gusting malady, the measles, which boys usually 
go through with before they are old enough to 
realize how disagreeable it is. It appears to 
have been a light attack, however, and in three 
weeks he was able to attend recitations again. 
He made no complaint of it, only writing to 
his uncle for ten dollars with which to pay the 
doctor. He likes his chimi, Mason, of Ports- 
mouth, and does not find his studies so arduous 
as at Salem before entering. Neither are the 
college laws so strict as he anticipated. 

In the following May he received the present 
of his first watch, presumably from Uncle Robert, 
and he writes to his mother, who is still at 
Sebago, that he is mightily pleased with it, and 

6i 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

that it enables him "to cut a great dash" at 
college. His letters to his relatives are not 
brilliant, but they indicate a healthful and con- 
tented mind. 

We will now consider some of the distin- 
guished personages who were Hawthorne's 
friends and associates during these four years 
of his apprenticeship to actual life; and there 
were rare characters among them. 

In the same coach in which Hawthorne left 
Portland for Brunswick, in the summer of 182 1, 
were Franklin Pierce and Jonathan Cilley.* 
Two men seated together in a modern 
railway-carriage will often become better ac- 
quainted in three hours than they might as 
next-door neighbors in three years; and this 
was still more likely to happen in the old days 
of coach journeys, when the very tedium of the 
occasion served as an inducement to frank and 
friendly conversation. Pierce was the right 
man to bring Hawthorne out of his hard shell of 
Sebago seclusion. He had already been one 
year at Bowdoin, and at that time there was not 
the same caste feeling between Sophomores and 
Freshmen — or at least very little of it — that 
has since arisen in American colleges. He was 
amiable and kindly, and possessed the rare 
gift of personal magnetism. Nature sometimes 
endows men and women with this quality in 
lieu of all other advantages, and such would 
seem to have been the case with Franklin Pierce. 
He was not much above the average in intellect, 

* Bridge's Memoir of Hawthorne, 3. 
62 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

and, as Hawthorne afterward confessed, not 
particularly attractive in appearance; with a 
stiff military neck, features strong but small, 
and opaque gray eyes, — a rather unimpressive 
face, and one hardly capable of a decided ex- 
pression. Yet with such abilities as he had, 
aided by personal magnetism and the lack of 
conspicuous faults, he became United vStates 
Senator at the age of thirty-five, and President 
fifteen years later. The best we can say of him 
is, that he was always Hawthorne's friend. 
From the first day that they met he became 
Hawthorne's patron and protector — so far as 
he may have required the latter. There must 
have been some fine quality in the man which 
is not easily discernible from his outward acts; 
a narrow-minded man, but of a refined nature. 

Jonathan Cilley was an abler man than Pierce, 
and a bold party-leader, but not so attractive 
personally. He always remained Hawthorne's 
friend, but the latter saw little of him and rarely 
heard from him after they had graduated. 
The one letter of his which has been published 
gives the impression of an impulsive, rough- 
and-tumble sort of person, always ready to 
take a hand in whatever might turn up. 

On the same day, Horatio Bridge, who lived 
at Augusta, was coming down the Kennebec 
River to Brunswick. Hawthorne did not make 
his acquaintance until some weeks later, but 
he proved to be the best friend of them all, 
and Hawthorne's most constant companion 
during the four years they remained together. 

63 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

Pierce, Cilley and Bridge were all born politicians, 
and it was this class of men with whom it would 
seem that Hawthorne naturally assimilated. 

On the same day, or the one previous, another 
boy set out from Portland for Brunswick, only 
fourteen years old, named Henry W. Long- 
fellow, — a name that is now known to thousands 
who never heard of Franklin Pierce. Would it 
have made a difference in the warp and woof 
of Hawthorne's life, if he had happened to ride 
that day in the same coach with Longfellow? 
Who can tell ? Was there any one in the breadth 
of the land with whom he might have felt an 
equal sympathy, with whom he could have 
matured a more enduring fellowship? It might 
have been a friendship like that of Beaumont 
and Fletcher, or, better still, like that of Goethe 
and Schiller, — ^but it was not written in the 
book of Fate. Longfellow also had tried his 
hand on the Sebago region, and was fond of the 
woods and of a gun; but he was too precocious 
to adapt himself easily to persons of his own 
age, or even somewhat older. He had no sooner 
arrived at Bowdoin than he became the asso- 
ciate and favorite of the professors. In this 
way he missed altogether the storm-and-stress 
period of youthful life, which is a useful ex- 
perience of its kind; and if we notice in his 
poetry a certain lack, the absence of a close 
contact with reality, — as if he looked at his 
subject through a glass casement, — this may 
be assigned as the reason for it. 

During the four years they went back and 
64 




HORATIO BRIDGE. FROM THE PORTRAIT BY EASTMAN JOHNSON 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

forth to their instruction together, Hawthorne 
and Longfellow never became cordially ac- 
quainted. They also belonged to rival so- 
cieties. There were only two principal 
societies at Bowdoin, which continued through 
the college course — the Peucinian and the 
Athensean, and the difference between them 
might be described by the words "citified" and 
"countrified," without taking either of those 
terms in an objectionable sense. Pierce was 
already a leading character in the Athenaean, 
and was soon followed by Cilley, Bridge and 
Hawthorne. The Peucinian suffered from the 
disadvantage of having members of the college 
faculty on its active list, and this must have 
given a rather constrained and academic char- 
acter to its meetings. There was much more 
of the true college spirit and classmate feeling 
in the Athenasan. 

Horatio Bridge is our single authority in 
regard to Bowdoin College at this time, and 
his off-hand sketches of Hawthorne, Pierce and 
Longfellow are invaluable. Never has such a 
group of distinguished young men been gathered 
together at an American college. He says of 
Hawthorne : 

"Hawthorne was a slender lad, having a massive head, 
with dark, brilliant, and most expressive eyes, heavy- 
eyebrows, and a profusion of dark hair. For his appear- 
ance at that time the inquirers must rely wholly upon the 
testimony of friends; for, I think, no portrait of him as a 
lad is extant. On one occasion, in our senior years, the 
class wished to have their profiles cut in silhouette by a 
wandering artist of the scissors, and interchanged by all 

5 6s 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

the thirty-eight. Hawthorne disapproved the proposed 
plan, and steadily refused to go into the Class Golgotha, 
as he styled the dismal collection. I joined him in this 
freak, and so our places were left vacant. I now regret the 
whim, since even a moderately correct outline of his 
features as a youth would, at this day, be interesting. 

"Hawthorne's figure was somewhat singular, owing to 
his carrying his head a little on one side; but his walk was 
square and firm, and his manner self-respecting and re- 
served. A fashionable boy of the present day might have 
seen something to amuse him in the new student's ap- 
pearance; but had he indicated this he would have rued 
it, for Hawthorne's clear appreciation of the social pro- 
prieties and his great physical courage would have made it 
as unsafe to treat him with discourtesy then as at any 
later time. 

"Though quiet and most amiable, he had great pluck 
and determination. I remember that in one of our con- 
vivial meetings we had the laugh upon him for some cause, 
an occurrence so rare that the bantering was carried too 
far. After bearing it awhile, Hawthorne singled out the 
one among us who had the reputation of being the best 
pugilist, and in a few words quietly told him that he would 
not permit the rallying to go farther. His bearing was so 
resolute, and there was so much of danger in his eye, that 
no one afterward alluded to the offensive subject in his 
presence. "* 

Horatio Bridge is a veracious witness, but we 
have to consider that he was nearly ninety- 
years of age at the time his memoirs were 
given to the pubHc. It is difficult to imagine 
Hawthorne as a slender youth, for his whole 
figure was in keeping with the structure of his 
head. It is more likely that he had a spare 
figure. Persons of a lively imagination have 
always been apt to hold their heads on one 

* Horatio Bridge, 5. 
66 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

side, but not commonly while they are walldng. 
It is for this reason that phrenologists have 
supposed that the organ of ideality is located 
on the side of the head, — if there really is any 
such organ. 

Bridge says of Longfellow precisely what one 
might expect: 

"He had decided personal beauty and most attractive 
manners. He was frank, courteous, and affable, while 
morally he was proof against the temptations that beset 
lads on first leaving the salutary restraints of home. He was 
diligent, conscientious, and most attentive to all his college 
duties, whether in the recitation-room, the lecture-hall, 
or the chapel. The word 'student' best expresses his 
literary habit, and in his intercourse with all he was con- 
spicuously the gentleman." 

In addition to those already mentioned, 
James W. Bradbury of Portland, afterwards 
United States Senator, and the Reverend Dr. 
George B. Cheever, the vigorous anti-slavery 
preacher, were members of this class. Three 
others, Cilley, Benson and Sawtelle, were after- 
ward members of the United States House of 
Representatives. Surely there must have been 
quite a fermentation of youthful intellect at 
Bowdoin between 182 1 and 1825. 

Franklin Pierce was so deeply interested in 
military affairs that it was a pity he should 
not have had a West Point cadetship. He was 
captain of the college militia company, in which 
Hawthorne and Bridge drilled and marched; 
a healthy and profitable exercise, and better 
than a gymnasium, if rather monotonous. Pierce 

67 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

was the popular hero and magnus Apollo of his 
class, as distinguished foot-ball players are now ; 
but just at this time he was neglecting his studies 
so badly that at the close of his second year he 
found himself at the very foot of the rank list. 
The fact became known through the college, 
and Pierce was so chagrined that he concluded 
to withdraw from Bowdoin altogether, and it 
was only by the urgent persuasion of his friends 
that he was induced to continue his course. " If 
I remain, however," he said, "you will witness 
a change in me." For months together he 
burned midnight oil in order to recover lost 
ground. During his last two years at college, 
he only missed two recitations, both for suffi- 
cient reasons. His conduct was unexception- 
able, he incurred no deductions, and finally 
graduated third in his class. It is an uncommon 
character that can play fast-and-loose with 
itself in this manner. The boy Franklin had 
departed, and Pierce the man had taken his 
place.* Horatio Bridge gives a rather more 
idealized portrait of him than he does of Haw- 
thorne. He says: 

"In person Pierce was slender, of medium height, with 
fair complexion and light hair, erect, with a military bear- 
ing, active, and always bright and cheerful. In character 
he was impulsive, not rash; generous, not lavish; chivalric, 
courteous, manly, and warm-hearted, — and he was one of 
the most popular students in the whole college." 

The instruction in American colleges during 
the first half of the nineteenth century was 

♦Professor Packard's "History of Bowdoin College." 
68 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

excellent for Greek, Latin and mathematics, — 
always the groundwork of a good education, — 
but the modern languages were indifferently- 
taught by French and German exiles, and other 
subjects w^ere treated still more indifferently. 
The two noble studies of history and philosophy 
were presented to the young aspiring soul in 
narrow, prejudiced text-books, which have long 
since been consigned to that bourn from which 
no literary work ever returns. As already 
stated, Hawthorne's best study was Latin, and 
in that he acquired good proficiency; but he 
was slow in mathematics, as artistic minds 
usually are, and in his other studies he only 
exerted himself sufficiently to pass his exami- 
nations in a creditable manner. We may pre- 
sume that he took the juice and left the rind; 
which was the sensible thing to do. As might 
be expected, his themes and forensics were 
beautifully written, although the argimients 
in them were not always logical; but it is sig- 
nificant that he never could be prevailed upon 
to make a declamation. There have been sensi- 
tive men, like Sumner and George W. Curtis, 
who were not at all afraid of the platform, but they 
were not, like Hawthorne, bashful men. The 
college faculty would seem to have realized 
the true difficulty in his case, and treated him 
in a kindly and lenient manner. No doubt he 
suffered enough in his own mind on account of 
this deficiency, and it may have occurred to 
him what difficulties he might have to encounter 
in after-life by reason of it. If a student at col- 

69 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

lege cannot bring himself to make a declamation, 
how can the mature man face an audience in a 
lecture-room, command a ship, or administer 
any important office? Such thoughts must 
have caused Hawthorne no slight anxiety, 
at that sensitive age. 

The out-door sports of the students did not 
attract Hawthorne greatly. He was a fast 
runner and a good leaper, but seemed to dislike 
violent exercise. He much preferred walking 
in the woods with a single companion, or by the 
banks of the great river on which Brunswick 
is situated. There were fine trout-brooks in the 
neighborhood, and formerly the woods of Maine 
were traversed by vast flocks of passenger 
pigeons, which with the large gray squirrels 
afforded excellent shooting. How skilful Haw- 
thorne became with his fowling-piece we have 
not been informed, but it is evident from pas- 
sages in "Fanshawe" that he learned something 
of trout-fishing; and on the whole he enjoyed 
advantages at Bowdoin which the present 
student at Harvard or Oxford might well envy 
him. The fish we catch in the streams and lakes 
of Maine only represent a portion of our enjoy- 
ment there. Horatio Bridge says: 

"There was one favorite spot in a little ravine, where a 
copious spring of clear, cold water gushed out from the 
sandy bank, and joined the larger stream. This was the 
Paradise Spring, which deserves much more than its 
present celebrity for the absolute purity of its waters. Of 
late years the brook has been better known as a favorite 
haunt of the great romance writer, and it is now often 
called the Hawthorne Brook. 

70 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

"Another locality, above the bridge, afforded an occasional 
stroll through the fields and by the river. Thare, in spring, 
we used to linger for hours to watch the giant pine-logs (for 
there were giants in those days) from the far-off forests, 
floating by hundreds in the stream until they came to the 
falls; then, balancing for a moment on the brink, they 
plunged into the foamy pool below." 

At the lower end of the town there was an 
old weather-beaten cot, where the railroad track 
now runs, inhabited by a lone woman nearly 
as old and time-worn as the dwelling itself. 
She pretended to be a fortune-teller, and to her 
Hawthorne and Bridge sometimes had recourse, 
to lift the veil of their future prospects; which 
she always succeeded in doing to their good 
entertainment. The old crone knew her business 
well, especially the art of giving sufficient variety 
of detail to the same old story. For a nine- 
pence she would predict a beautiful blond wife 
for Hawthorne, and an equally handsome dark- 
complexioned one for Bridge. Riches were of 
course thrown in by the handful; and Bridge 
remarks that although these never came to pass 
they both happened to be blessed with excellent 
wives. It is not surprising that the handsome 
Hawthorne and his tall, elegant-looking com- 
panion should have stimulated the old woman's 
imagination in a favorable manner. The small 
coin they gave her may have been the least 
happiness that their visits brought into her life. 

Close by the college grounds there was a 
miserable little inn, which went by the name of 
Ward's Tavern, and thither the more uproar- 
ious class of students consorted at intervals 

71 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

for the purpose of keeping care at a distance, and 
singing, "Landlord, fill your flowing bowls." 
Strange to say, the reserved, thoughtful Haw- 
thorne was often to be found among them. It does 
not seem quite consistent with the gravity of 
his customary demeanor, but youth has its 
period of reckless ebullition. Punch-bowl 
societies exist in all our colleges, and many 
who disapprove of them join them for the sake 
of popularity. Hawthorne may have been as 
grave and well-behaved on these occasions as 
he was customarily. We have Bridge's word 
for this; and the matter would hardly be worth 
mentioning if it had not led to more serious 
proceedings. May 29, 1822, President Allen 
wrote to Mrs. Hathorne at Salem that her son 
had been fined fifty cents for gaming at cards.* 
Certainly this was not very severe treatment; 
and if the Bowdoin faculty, being on the spot, 
concluded that young Hawthorne had only 
injured his moral nature fifty cents' worth, I 
think we shall do well to agree with their decision. 
At the same time Nathaniel wrote his mother 
the following manly letter : 

"Brunswick, May 30th, 1822. 

"My dear Mother: — I hope you have safely arrived in 
Salem. I have nothing particular to inform you of, except 
that all the card-players in college have been found out, and 
my unfortunate self among the number. One has been dis- 
missed from college, two suspended, and the rest, with my- 

* In 1864 a Harvard student was fined three dollars for 
writing on the woodwork with a lead-pencil — erased with 
a sponge. 

72 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

self, have been fined fifty cents each. I believe the 
President intends to write to the friends of all the de- 
linquents. Should that be the case, you must show the 
letter to nobody. If I am again detected, I shall have the 
honor of being suspended. When the President asked what 
we played for, I thought it proper to inform him it was fifty 
cents, although it happened to be a quart of wine ; but if I 
had told him of that, he would probably have fined me for 
having a blow. There was no untruth in the case, as the 
wine cost fifty cents. I have not played at all this term. I 
have not drank any kind of spirits or wine this term, and 
shall not till the last week. " * 

The clemency with which the college authori- 
ties treated Bridge and Hawthorne is a plain 
indication of the confidence which they felt in 
them, and speaks more highly for their respec- 
tive characters than if they had been patterns 
of good behavior. Some of the others were not 
so fortunate. One young man, whose name is 
properly withheld from us, was expelled from 
the institution. He was supposed to have been 
the ringleader in this dubious business, but 
Hawthorne manfully resented the supposition 
that any one could have influenced him, or did 
influence him, in this matter. It is more likely 
that he was influenced by the spirit of investi- 
gation, and wished to know what the sensation 
was like from personal experience. 

"Letters home" from college are not com- 
monly interesting to the general public, and 
those which Hawthorne wrote to his mother 
and sisters do not differ essentially from such as 
other young men write under similar conditions. 

* Horatio Bridge, ii8. 

n 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

At the age when it is so difficult to decide 
whether we have become men or are still boys, 
all our actions partake of a similar uncertainty, 
and the result of what we do and say is likely 
to be a rather confused impression. Though 
college students appear different enough to one 
another, they all seem alike to the outside world. 
University towns always contain more or 
less cultivated society, and young Hawthorne 
might have been welcome to the best of it if 
he had felt so inclined ; but he was as shy of the 
fair sex as Goldsmith's bashful lover. M. D. 
Conway, who knew him, doubts if he ever be- 
came well acquainted with a young lady until 
his engagement to Miss Peabody. Considering 
this, it seems as if Jonathan Cilley made rather 
a hazardous wager with Hawthorne, before 
leaving Bowdoin, — a wager of a cask of Madeira, 
that Hawthorne would become a married man 
within the next twelve years. Papers to that 
effect were duly signed by the respective parties, 
sealed, and delivered for safe-keeping to Horatio 
Bridge, who preserved them faithfully until 
the appointed time arrived. Under ordinary 
conditions the chances of this bet were in Cilley 's 
favor, for in those primitive days it was 
much easier for educated young men to ob- 
tain a start in life than it is at present, and 
early marriages were in consequence much 
more common.* 

* Horatio Bridge, 47. The contract was dated November 
14, 1824. 

74 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

The year 1824 was a serious one in American 
politics. The Republican-Democratic party, 
having become omnipotent, broke to pieces of 
its own weight. The eastern interest nominated 
John Quincy Adams for the Presidency; the 
western interest nominated Henry Clay; and 
the frontier interest nominated Andrew Jackson. 
Unfortunately the frontier interest included all 
the unsettled and continually shifting elements 
in the country, so that Jackson had nearly as 
strong a support in the East as in the West. 
Bridge says, "We were all enthusiastic sup- 
porters of old Hickory." It was evidently 
Pierce who led them into this, and although it 
proved in a material sense for Hawthorne's 
benefit, it separated him permanently from the 
class to which he properly belonged — the en- 
lightened men of culture of his time ; and Cilley's 
tragical fate can be directly traced to it. 
The Jackson movement was in its essence 
a revolt against civility, — and it seems as if 
Hawthorne and Bridge might have recognized 
this. 

Hawthorne was well liked in his class in spite 
of his reserved manners, but he held no class 
offices that we hear of, except a place on a com- 
mittee of the Athenasan Society with Franklin 
Pierce. Class days and class suppers, so prolific 
of small honors, were not introduced at Bowdoin 
until some years later. He graduated eigh- 
teenth in a class of thirty-eight, but this was not 
sufficient to give him a part in the commence- 



75 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

ment exercises.* Accordingly Hawthorne, 
Bridge, and others wlio were in a like predic- 
ament, organized a mock Commencement cele- 
bration at Ward's Tavern, where they elected 
officers of a comical sort, such as boatswain 
and sea-cook, and concluded their celebration 
in a manner suitable to the occasion. 

Hawthorne was' commonly known among his 
classmates, as " Hath, " and his friends addressed 
him in this manner long after he had graduated. 
His degree was made out in the name of Na- 
thaniel Hathorne, above which he subsequently 
wrote "Hawthorne," in bold letters. 

The question may well be raised here, how 
it happened that America produced so many 
men of remarkable intellect with such slight 
opportunities for education in former times, 
while our greatly improved universities have 
not graduated an orator like Webster, a poet 
like Longfellow, or a prose-writer equal to 
Hawthorne during the past forty years. There 
have been few enough who have risen above 
mediocrity. 

It is the same, more or less, all over the 
civilized world. We have entered into a 
mechanical age, which is natural enough con- 
sidering the rapid advances of science and the 
numerous mechanical inventions, but which 

* The President informed him that his rank in the class 
would have entitled him to a part if it had not been for his 
neglect of declamations; and Hawthorne wrote to his 
mother that he was perfectly satisfied with this, for it 
saved him the mortification of appearing in public. 

76 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

is decidedly unfavorable to the development 
of art and literature. Everything now goes by 
machinery, from Harvard University to Ohio 
politics and the gigantic United States Steel 
Company; and every man has to find his place 
in some machine or other, or he is thrown out 
of line. Individual effort, as well as independence 
of thought and action, is everywhere frowned 
upon ; but without freedom of thought and 
action there can be no great individualities, 
which is the same as saying that there can be 
no poets like Longfellow, or writers like Haw- 
thorne and Emerson. Spontaneity is the life 
of the true artist, and in a mechanical civiliza- 
tion there can be neither spontaneity nor the 
poetic material which is essential to artistic 
work of a high order. There can be no great 
orators, for masses of men are no longer influ- 
enced by oratory, but by newspapers. Genius 
is like a plant of slow growth, which requires 
sunshine and Mother Earth to nourish it, not 
chemicals and electric lights. 



17 



CHAPTER IV 
Little Misery: 1825-1835 

During the War of the American Revolution, 
the officers of the French fleet, which was sta- 
tioned at Newport, invented a game of cards, 
called "Boston," of which one peculiarity was, 
that under certain conditions, whoever held 
the lowest hand would win the count. This was 
called "Little Misery, "and this was the kind of 
hand which Nathaniel Hawthorne had to play 
for fifteen years after leaving Bowdoin College. 
Only his indomitable will could have carried 
him through it. 

A college graduate who lacks the means to 
study a profession, and who has no influential 
relative to make a place for him in the world, 
finds himself in a most discouraging position. 
The only thing that his education has fitted 
him to do is, to teach school, and he may not 
be adapted to this, on account of some personal 
peculiarity. There was, and I suppose is still, 
a prejudice among mercantile men against 
college graduates, as a class of proud, indolent, 
neglectful persons, very difficult to instruct. Un- 
doubtedly there are many such, but the innocent 
have to suffer with the guilty. It is natural 
that a man who has not had a liberal education 
should object to employing a subordinate who 
knows Latin and Greek. Whether Hawthorne's 

78 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

Uncle Robert, who had thus far proved to be 
his guardian genius, would have educated him 
for a profession, we have no means of knowing. 
This would mean of course a partial support 
for years afterward, and it is quite possible 
that Mr. Manning considered his duties to his 
own children paramount to it. What he did 
for Nathaniel may have been the best he could, 
to give him the position of book-keeper for the 
stage-company. This was of course Pegasus 
in harness (or rather at the hitching-post) , 
but it is excellent experience for every young 
man ; although the compensation in Hawthorne's 
case was small and there could be no expecta- 
tion of future advancement. 

In this dilemma he decided to do the one 
thing for which Nature intended him, — to be- 
come a writer of fiction, — and he held fast to 
this determination in the face of most discour- 
aging obstacles. He composed a series of short 
stories, — echoes of his academic years, — which he 
proposed to publish under the title of Words- 
worth's popular poem, "We Are Seven." One 
of these is said to have been based on the witch- 
craft delusion, and it is a pity that it should not 
have been preserved, but their feminine titles 
afford no indication of their character. He 
carried them to a publisher, who received him 
politely and promised to examine them, but 
one month passed after another without Haw- 
thorne's hearing from him, so that he concluded 
at length to make inquiries.* The publisher 

* J. Hawthorne, i. 124. 
79 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

confessed that he had not even undertaken to 
read them, and Nathaniel carried them back, 
with a sinking heart, to his little chamber in 
the house on Herbert Street, — where he may- 
have had melancholy thoughts enough for the 
next few weeks. 

Youth, however, soon outgrows its chagrins. 
In less than two years Hawthorne was prepared 
to enter the literary lists, equipped with a 
novelette, called "Fanshawe"; but here again 
he was destined to meet with a rebuff. After 
tendering it to a number of publishers without 
encouragement, he concluded to take the risk 
of publishing it himself. This only cost him a 
few hundred dollars, but the result was un- 
satisfactory, and he afterward destroyed all 
the copies that he could regain possession of. 

Hawthorne's genius was of slow development. 
He was only twenty-four when he published 
this rather immature work, and it might have 
been better if he had waited longer. It was to 
him what the "Sorrows of Werther" was to 
Goethe, but while the " Sorrows of Werther" 
made Goethe famous in many countries, " Fan- 
shawe" fell still-born. The latter was not more 
imitative of Scott than the " Sorrows of Werther " 
is of Rousseau, and now that we consider it in 
the cool critical light of the twentieth century, we 
cannot but wonder that the "Sorrows of Werther" 
ever produced such enthusiasm. It is quite as 
difficult to see why " Fanshawe " should not have 
proved a success. It lacks the grace and dignity 
of Hawthorne's mature style, but it has an in- 

80 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

genious plot, a lively action, and is written in 
sufficiently good English. One would suppose 
that its faults would have helped to make it 
popular, for portions of it are so exciting as to 
border closely on the sensational. It may be 
affirmed that when a novel becomes so exciting 
that we wish to turn over the pages and antici- 
pate the conclusion, either the action of the 
story is too heated or its incidents are too highly 
colored. The introduction of pirates in a work 
of fiction is decidely sensational, from Walter 
Scott downward, and, though Hawthorne 
never fell into this error, he approaches closely 
to it in "Fanshawe. " There is some dark 
secret between the two villains of the piece, 
which he leaves to the reader as an exercise for 
the imagination. This is a characteristic of 
all his longer stories. There is an unknown 
quantity, an insoluble point, in them, which 
tantalizes the reader. 

What we especially feel in "Fanshawe" is 
the author's lack of social experience. His 
heroine at times behaves in a truly feminine 
manner, and at others her performances make 
us shiver. Her leaving her guardian's house at 
midnight to go off with an unknown man, whom 
her maidenly instinct should have taught her 
to distrust, even if Fanshawe had not warned 
her against him, might have been characteristic 
of the Middle Ages, but is certainly not of modern 
life. Bowdoin College evidently served Haw- 
thorne as a background to his plot, although 
removed some distance into the country, and 
6 8i 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

it is likely that the portrait of the kindly professor 
might have been recognized there. Ward's 
Tavern serves for the public-house where the 
various characters congregate, and there is a 
high rocky ledge in the woods, or what used to 
be woods at Brunswick, where the students 
often tried their skill in climbing, and which 
Hawthorne has idealized into the cliff where 
the would-be abductor met his timely fate. 
The trout-brook where Bridge and Hawthorne 
used to fish is also introduced. 

Fanshawe himself seems like a house of which 
only two sides have been built. There are such 
persons, and it is no wonder if they prove to be 
short-lived. Yet the scene in which he makes 
his noble renunciation of the woman who is 
devoted to him, purely from a sense of grati- 
tude, is finely and tenderly drawn, and w^orthy 
of Hawthorne in his best years. The story was 
republished after its author's death, and fully 
deserves its position in his works. 

It was about this time (1827) that Nathaniel 
Hathorne changed his name to Hawthorne. 
No reason has ever been assigned for his doing 
so, and he had no legal right to do it without 
an act of the Legislature, but he took a revolu- 
tionary right, and as his family and fellow- 
citizens acquiesced in this, it became an estab- 
lished fact. His living relatives in the Man- 
ning family are unable to explain his reason 
for it. It may have been for the sake of eu- 
phony, or he may have had a fanciful notion, 
that such a change would break the spell 

82 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

which seemed to be dragging his family 
down with him. Conway's theory that it was 
intended to serve him as an incognito is quite 
untenable. His name first appears with a. w in 
the Bowdoin Triennial Catalogue of 1828. 

There are very few data existing as to Haw- 
thorne's life during his first ten years of man- 
hood, but it must have been a hard, dreary 
period for him. The Manning children, Robert, 
Elizabeth and Rebecca, were now growing up, 
and must have been a source of entertainment 
in their way, and his sister Louisa was always 
a comfort; but Horatio Bridge, who made a 
number of flying visits to him, states that he 
never saw the elder sister, even at table, — a 
fact from which we may draw our own conclu- 
sions. Hawthorne had no friends at this time, 
except his college associates, and they were all 
at a distance, — Pierce and Cilley both flourishing 
young lawyers, one at Concord, New Hampshire, 
and the other at Thomaston, Maine, — while 
Longfellow was teaching modern languages 
at Bowdoin. He had no lady friends to brighten 
his evenings for him, and if he went into society, 
it was only to be stared at for his personal 
beauty, like a jaguar in a menagerie. He had 
no fund of the small conversation which serves 
like oil to make the social machinery run 
smoothly. Like all deep natures, he found it 
diflicult to adapt himself to minds of a different 
calibre. Salem people noticed this, and his appar- 
ent lack of an object in life, — for he maintained 
a profound secrecy in regard to his literary 

83 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

efforts, — and concluded that he was an indolent 
young man without any faculty for business, 
and would never come to good in this world. No 
doubt elderly females admonished him for 
neglecting his opportunities, and small wits 
buzzed about him as they have about many 
another under similar conditions. It was Hans 
Andersen's story of the ugly duck that proved 
to be a swan. 

No wonder that Hawthorne betook himself to 
the solitude of his own chamber, and consoled him- 
self like the philosopher who said, "When I 
am alone, then I am least alone." He had an 
internal life with which only his most intimate 
friends were acquainted, and he could people 
his room with forms from his own fancy, much 
more real to him than the palpable ignota 
whom he passed in the street. Beautiful visions 
came to him, instead of sermonizing ladies, 
patronizing money-changers, aggressive up- 
starts, grimacing wiseacres, and that large 
class of amiable, well-meaning persons that 
makes up the bulk of society. We should not 
be surprised if angels sometimes came to hover 
round him, for to the pure in heart heaven 
descends upon earth. 

There is a passage in Hawthorne's diary under 
date of October 4, 1840, which has often been 
quoted ; but it will have to be quoted again, for 
it cannot be read too often, and no biography of 
him would be adequate without it. He says : 

" Here I sit in my old accustomed chamber 
where I used to sit in days gone by ... . 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

This claims to be called a haunted chamber, 
for thousands upon thousands of visions have 
appeared to me in it; and some few of them 
have become visible to the world. If ever I 
should have a biographer, he ought to make 
great mention of this chamber in my memoirs, 
because so much of my lonely youth was wasted 
here, and here my mind and character were 
formed ; and here I have been glad and hopeful, 
and here I have been despondent. And here I 
sat a long, long time, waiting patiently for the 
world to know me, and sometimes wondering 
why it did not know me sooner, or whether 
it would ever know me at all, — at least, till I 
were in my grave. And sometimes it seemed as 
if I were already in the grave, with only life 
enough to be chilled and benumbed. But 
oftener I was happy, — at least as happy as I 
then knew how to be, or was aware of the pos- 
sibility of being. By and by, the world found 
me out in my lonely chamber, and called me 
forth, — not indeed, with a loud roar of acclama- 
tion, but rather with a still, small voice, — and 
forth I went, but found nothing in the world 
that I thought preferable to my solitude till 
now .... and now I begin to under- 
stand why I was imprisoned so many years 
in this lonely chamber, and why I could never 
break through the viewless bolts and bars; 
for if I had sooner made my escape into the 
world, I should have grown hard and rough, 
and been covered with earthly dust, and my 
heart might have become callous by rude en- 

8s 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

counters with the multitude .... But 
living in solitude till the fulness of time was 
come, I still kept the dew of my youth, and 
the freshness of my heart. " 

During these dismal years Horatio Bridge 
was Hawthorne's good genius. The letters that 
Hawthorne wrote to him have not been pre- 
served, but we may judge of their character 
by Bridge's replies to him — always frank, 
manly, sympathetic and encouraging. Haw- 
thorne evidently confided his troubles and 
difficulties to Bridge, as he would to an elder 
brother. Bridge finally destroyed Hawthorne's 
letters, not so much on account of their com- 
plaining tone as for the personalities they con- 
tained;* and this suggests to us that there was 
still another side to Hawthorne's life at this 
epoch concerning which we shall never be en- 
lightened. A man could not have had a better 
friend than Horatio Bridge. He was to Haw- 
thorne what Edward Irving was to Carlyle; 
and the world is more indebted to them both 
than it often realizes. 

There is in fact a decided similarity between 
the lives of Carlyle and Hawthorne, in spite 
of radical differences in their work and char- 
acters. Both started at the foot of the ladder, 
and met with a hard, long struggle for recogni- 
tion; both found it equally difficult to earn 
their living by their pens; both were assisted 
by most devoted friends, and both finally 
achieved a reputation among the highest in their 

* Horatio Bridge, 69. 
86 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

own time. If there is sometimes a melancholy 
tinge in their writings, may we wonder at it? 
Pericles said, "We need the theatre to chase 
away the sadness of life," and it might have 
benefited the whole Hawthorne family to have 
gone to the theatre once a fortnight; but there 
were few entertainments in Salem, except of 
the stiff conventional sort, or in the shape of 
public dances open to firemen and shop-girls. 
Long afterward, Elizabeth Hawthorne wrote 
of her brother: 

"His habits were as regular as possible. In the evening 
after tea he went out for about an hour, whatever the 
weather was; and in winter, after his return, he ate a pint 
bowl of thick chocolate — (not cocoa, but the old-fashioned 
chocolate) crumbed full of bread: eating never hurt him 
then, and he liked good things. In summer he ate some- 
thing equivalent, finishing with fruit in the season of it. In 
the evening we discussed political affairs, upon which we 
differed in opinion; he being a Democrat, and I of the 
opposite party. In reality, his interest in such things was 
so slight that I think nothing would have kept it alive but 
my contentious spirit. Sometimes, when he had a book that 
he particularly liked, he would not talk. He read a great 
many novels." * 

If Elizabeth possessed the genius which her 
brother supposed, she certainly does not indi- 
cate it in this letter; but genius in the ore is 
very different from genius smelted and refined 
by effort and experience. The one important 
fact in her statement is that Hawthorne was in 
the habit of taking solitary rambles after dark, 
— an owlish practice, but very attractive to 

* J. Hawthorne, i. 125. 
87 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

romantic minds. Human nature appears in 
a more pictorial guise by lamplight, after the 
day's work is over. The groups at the street 
corners, the glittering display in the watch- 
maker's windows, the carriages flashing by and 
disappearing in the darkness, the mysterious 
errands of foot-passengers, all served as object- 
lessons for this student of his own kind. 
Jonathan Cilley once said : 

"I love Hawthorne; I admire him; but I do not know 
him. He hves in a mysterious world of thought and 
imagination which he never permits me to enter. ' ' * 

Long-continued thinking is sure to take 
effect at last, either in words or in action, and 
Hawthorne's mind had to disburden itself in 
some manner. So, after the failure of " Fan- 
shawe, " he returned to his original plan of 
writing short stories, and this time with success. 
In January, 1830, the well-known tale of "The 
Gentle Boy" was accepted by S. G. Goodrich, 
the editor of a Boston publication called the 
Token, who was himself better known in those 
days under the nom de plume of " Peter Parley. " 
"The Wives of the Dead," "Roger Malvin's 
Burial," and "Major Molineaux" soon fol- 
lowed. In 1833 he published the "Seven Vaga- 
bonds, " and some others. The New York 
Knickerbocker published the "Fountain of 
Youth" and "Edward Payne's Rosebud." 
After 1833 the Token and the New England 
Magazine-\ stood ready to accept all the short 

♦Packard's "Bowdoin College," 306. 
t J. Hawthorne, i. 175. 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

pieces that Hawthorne could give them, but 
they did not encourage him to write serial 
stories. However, it was not the custom then 
for writers to sign their names to magazine 
articles, so that Hawthorne gained nothing in 
reputation by this. Some of his earliest pieces 
were printed over the signature of "Oberon. " 
An autumn expedition to the White Moun- 
tains, Lake Champlain and Lake Ontario, and 
Niagara Falls, in 1832, raised Hawthorne's 
spirits and stimulated his ambition. He wrote 
to his mother from Burlington, Vermont, Sep- 
tember 16: 

"I have arrived in safety, having passed through the 
White Hills, stopping at Ethan Crawford's house, and 
climbing Mt. Washington. I have not decided as to my 
future course. I have no intention of going into Canada. 
I have heard that cholera is prevalent in Boston." 

It was something to have stood on the highest 
summit east of the Rocky Mountains, and to 
have seen all New England lying at his feet. 
A hard wind in the Crawford Notch, which he 
describes in his story of " The Ambitious Guest, " 
must have been in his own experience, and as 
he passed the monument of the ill-fated Willey 
family he may have thought that he too might 
become celebrated after his death, even as 
they were from their poetic catastrophe. This 
expedition provided him with the materials 
for a number of small plots. 

The ice was now broken; but a new class of 
difficulties arose before him. American litera- 
ture was then in the bud and promised a beauti- 

89 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

ful blossoming, but the public was not prepared 
for it. Monthly magazines had a precarious 
existence, and their uncertainty of remuneration 
reacted on the contributors. Hawthorne was 
poorly paid, often obliged to wait a long time 
for his pay, and occasionally lost it altogether. 
For his story of "The Gentle Boy," one of the 
gems of literature, which ought to be read aloud 
every year in the public schools, he received 
the paltry sum of thirty-five dollars. Evidently 
he could not earn even a modest maintenance on 
such terms, and his letters to Bridge became 
more despondent than ever. 

Goodrich, who was a writer of the Andrews 
Norton class, soon perceived that Hawthorne 
could make better sentences than his own, and 
engaged him to write historical abstracts for 
his pitiful Peter Parley books, paying him a 
hundred dollars for the whole work, and secur- 
ing for himself all the credit that appertained 
to it. Everybody knew who Peter Parley was, 
but it has only recently been discovered that 
much of the literature which passed under his 
name was the work of Nathaniel Hawthorne. 

The editor of a New York magazine to which 
Hawthorne contributed a number of sketches 
repeatedly deferred the payment for them, and 
finally confessed his inability to make it, — 
which he probably knew or intended before- 
hand. Then, with true metropolitan assurance, 
he begged of Hawthorne the use of certain 
unpublished manuscripts, which he still had 
in his possession. Hawthorne with unlimited 

go 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

contempt told the fellow that he might keep 
them, and then wrote to Bridge : 

"Thus has this man, who would be considered a Maecenas, 
taken from a penniless writer material incomparably 
better than any his own brain can supply."* 

Whether this New York periodical was the 
Knickerbocker or some other, we are not informed ; 
neither do we know what Bridge replied to 
Hawthorne, who had closed his letter with a 
malediction, on the aforesaid editor, but else- 
where in his memoirs he remarks : 

" Hawthorne received but small compensation for any 
of this literary work, for he lacked the knowledge of 
business and the self-assertion necessary to obtain even 
the moderate remuneration vouchsafed to writers fifty 
years ago." f 

If Horatio Bridge had been an author himself, 
he would not have written this statement con- 
cerning his friend. Magazine editors are like 
men in other professions : some of them are 
honorable and others are less so; but an author 
who offers a manuscript to the editor of a maga- 
zine is wholly at his mercy, so far as that small 
piece of property is concerned. The author 
cannot make a bargain with the editor as he 
can with the publisher of his book, and is obliged 
to accept whatever the latter chooses to give 
him. Instances have been known where an 
editor has destroyed a valuable manuscript, 

* Horatio Bridge, 68, 69. 
t Horatio Bridge, 77. 

gi 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

without compensation or explanation of any 
kind. Hawthorne was doing the best that a 
human being could under the conditions that 
were given him. Above all things, he was true 
to himself; no man could be more so. 

Yet Bridge wrote to him on Christmas Day, 
1836: 

"The bane of your life has been self-distrust. This has 
kept you back for many years; which, if you had im- 
proved by publishing, would long ago have given you what 
you must now wait a long time for. It may be for the 
best, but I doubt it." 

Nothing is more trying in misfortune than 
the ill-judged advice of well-meaning friends. 
There is no nettle that stings like it. To expect 
Hawthorne to become a literary genius, and at 
the same time to develop the peculiar faculties 
of a commercial traveller or a curb-stone broker, 
was unreasonable. In the phraseology of Sir 
William Hamilton, the two vocations are "non- 
compossible. " Bridge himself was undertaking 
a grandly unpractical project about this time: 
nothing less than an attempt to dam the Andros- 
coggin, a river liable to devastating floods; 
and in this enterprise he was obliged to trust 
to a class of men who were much more uncertain 
in their ways and methods than those with 
whom Hawthorne dealt. Horatio Bridge had 
not studied civil engineering, and the result 
was that before two years had elapsed the 
floods on the Androscoggin swept the dam away, 
and his fortune with it. 

92 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

In the same letter we also notice this para- 
graph concerning another Bowdoin friend: 

"And so Frank Pierce is elected Senator. There is an 
instance of what a man can do by trying. With no very 
remarkable talents, he at the age of thirty-four fills one of 
the highest stations in the nation. He is a good fellow, 
and I rejoice at his success."* 

Pierce certainly possessed the cap of For- 
tunatus, and it seems as if there must have 
been some magic faculty in the man, which 
enabled him to win high positions so easily; 
and he continued to do this, although he had 
not distinguished himself particularly as a 
member of Congress, and he appeared to still 
less advantage among the great party leaders 
in the United States Senate. He illustrated 
the faculty for " getting elected. " 

In October, 1836, the time arrived for settling 
the matrimonial wager between Hawthorne 
and Jonathan Cilley, which they had made at 
college twelve years before. Bridge accordingly 
examined the documents which they had de- 
posited with him, and notified Cilley that he 
was under obligation to provide Hawthorne 
with an octavo of Madeira. 

Cilley's letter to Hawthorne on this occasion 
does not impress one favorably. f It is familiar 
and jocose, without being either witty or friendly, 
and he gives no intimation in it of an inten- 

* J. Hawthorne, i. 148. 
t J. Hawthorne, i. 144. 

93 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

tion to fulfil his promise. Hawthorne appears 
to have sent the letter to Bridge, who replied: 

"I doubt whether you ever get your wine from Cilley. 
His inquiring of you whether he had really lost the bet is 
suspicious ; and he has written me in a manner inconsistent 
with an intention of paying promptly ; and if a bet grows 
old it grows cold. He wished me to propose to you to have 
it paid at Brunswick next Commencement, and to have as 
many of our classmates as could be mustered to drink it. 
It may be Cilley's idea to pay over the balance after tak- 
ing a strong pull at it; if so, it is well enough. But still it 
should be tendered within the month. " 

In short, Cilley behaved in this matter much 
in the style of a tricky Van Buren politician, 
making a great bluster of words, and privately 
intending to do nothing. He was running for 
Congress at the time on the Van Buren ticket, 
and it is quite likely that the expenses of the 
campaign had exhausted his funds. That he 
should never have paid the bet was less to Haw- 
thorne's disadvantage than his own. 

It was now that Horatio Bridge proved him- 
self a true friend, and equally a man. In the 
spring of 1836 Goodrich had obtained for Haw- 
thorne the editorship of the American Magazine 
of Useful and Entertaining Knowledge, with a 
salary of five hundred dollars;* but he soon 
discovered that he had embarked on a ship 
with a rotten hulk. He started off heroically, 
writing the whole of the first number with the 
help of his sister Elizabeth; but by midsummer 
the concern was bankrupt, and he retired to 
his lonely cell, more gloomy and despondent 

* Conway, 45. 
94 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

than before. There are few sadder spectacles 
then that of a man seeking work without being 
able to obtain it ; and this applies to the man of 
genius as well as to the day laborer. 

Horatio Bridge now realized that the time 
had come for him to interfere. He recognized 
that Hawthorne was gradually lapsing into a 
hypochondria that might terminate fatally; 
that he was Goethe's oak planted in a flower- 
pot, and that unless the flower-pot could be 
broken, the oak would die. He also saw that 
Hawthorne would never receive the public 
recognition that was due to his ability, so long 
as he published magazine articles under an 
assumed name. He accordingly wrote to Good- 
rich — fortunately before his mill-dam gave way — 
suggesting the publication of a volume of Haw- 
thorne's stories, and offered to guarantee the 
publisher against loss. This proposition was 
readily accepted, but Bridge might have made 
a much better bargain. What it amounted 
to was, the half -profit system without the half- 
profit. The necessary papers were exchanged 
and Hawthorne gladly acceded to Goodrich's 
terms. Bridge, however, had cautioned Good- 
rich not to inform Hawthorne of his share in 
the enterprise, and the consequence of this was 
that he shortly received a letter from Hawthorne, 
informing him of the good news — which he knew 
already — and praising Goodrich, to whom he 
proposed to dedicate his new volume. Bridge's 
generosity had come back to him, dried and 
salted, — as it has to many another. 

95 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

What could Bridge do, in the premises? 
Goodrich had written to Hawthorne that the 
publisher, Mr. Howes, was confident of making 
a favorable arrangement with a man of capital 
who would edit the book; but Bridge did 
not know this, and he suspected Goodrich of 
sailing into Hawthorne's favor under a false 
flag. He therefore wrote to Hawthorne, No- 
vember 17, 1836: 

" I fear you will hitrt yourself by puffing Goodrich un- 
deservedly, — for there is no doubt in my mind of his selfish- 
ness in regard to your work and yourself. I am perfectly 
aware that he has taken a good deal of interest in you, but 
when did he ever do anything for you without a quid pro 
quo? The magazine was given to you for $100 less than 
it should have been. The Token was saved by your writing. 
Unless you are already committed, do not mar the pros- 
pects of your first book by hoisting Goodrich into favor. " 

This prevented the dedication, for which 
Hawthorne was afterward thankful enough. 
The book, which was the first volume of "Twice 
Told Tales" came from the press the following 
spring, and proved an immicdiate success, al- 
though not a highly lucrative one for its author. 
With the help of Longfellow's cordial review 
of it in the North American it established Haw- 
thorne's reputation on a firm and irrefragable 
basis. All honor to Horatio. 

As if Hawthorne had not seen a sufficiently 
long "winter of discontent" already, his friends 
now proposed to obtain the position of secretary 
and chronicler for him on Commodore Jones's 
exploring expedition to the South Pole ! Frank- 

96 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

lin Pierce was the first to think of this, but 
Bridge interceded with Cilley to give it his 
support, and there can be no doubt that they 
would have succeeded in obtaining the position 
for Hawthorne, but the expedition itself failed, 
for lack of a Congressional appropriation. The 
following year, 1838, the project was again 
brought forward by the administration, and 
Congress being in a more amiable frame of mind 
granted the requisite funds; but Hawthorne 
had now contracted new ties in his native city, 
bound, as it were, by an inseparable cord stronger 
than a Manila hawser, and Doctor Nathaniel 
Peabody's hospitable parlors were more at- 
tractive to him than anything the Antarctic 
regions could offer. 

We have now entered upon the period where 
Hawthorne's own diary commences, the auto- 
biography of a pure-minded, closely observing 
man; an invaluable record, which began ap- 
parently in 1835, and was continued nearly 
until the close of his life; now published in a 
succession of American, English and Italian 
note-books. In it we find records of what he 
saw and thought; descriptive passages, after- 
ward made serviceable in his works of fiction, 
and perhaps written with that object in view; 
fanciful notions, jotted down on the impulse 
of the moment; records of his social life; but 
little critical writing or personal confessions, — 
although the latter may have been reserved 
from publication by his different editors. It is 
known that much of his diary has not yet 

7 97 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

been given to the public, and perhaps never 
will be. 

In July, 1837, Hawthorne went to Augusta, 
to spend a month with his friend Horatio Bridge ; 
went fishing with him, for what they called 
white perch, probably the saibling;* and was 
greatly entertained with the peculiarities of an 
idiomatic Frenchman, an itinerant teacher of 
that language, whom Bridge, in the kindness 
of his heart, had taken into his own house. The 
last of July, Cilley also made his appearance, 
but did hot bring the Madeira with him, and 
Hawthorne has left this rather critical portrait 
of him in his diary: 

"Friday, July 28th. — Saw my classmate 

and formerly intimate friend, , for the first 

time since we graduated. He has met with 
good success in life, in spite of circumstances, 
having struggled upward against bitter op- 
position, by the force of his abilities, to be a 
member of Congress, after having been for some 
time the leader of his party in the State Legisla- 
ture. We met like old friends, and conversed 
almost as freely as we used to do in college 
days, twelve years ago and more. He is a 
singular person, shrewd, crafty, insinuating, 
with wonderful tact, seizing on each man by 
his manageable point, and using him for his 
own purpose, often without the man's suspecting 

* The American saibling, or golden trout, is only in- 
digenous to Lake Sunapee, New Hampshire, and to a 
small lake near Augusta. 

98 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

that he is made a tool of; and yet, artificial 
as his character would seem to be, his conver- 
sation, at least to myself, was full of natural 
feeling, the expression of which can hardly be 
mistaken, and his revelations with regard to 
himself had really a great deal of frankness. 
A man of the most open nature might well 
have been more reserved to a friend, after 

twelve years separation, than was to me. 

Nevertheless, he is really a crafty man, con- 
cealing, like a murder-secret, anything that it 
is not good for him to have known. He by 
no means feigns the good feeling that he pro- 
fesses, nor is there anything affected in the 
frankness of his conversation; and it is this 
that makes him so fascinating. There is such 
a quantity of truth and kindliness and warm 
affections, that a man's heart opens to him, 
in spite of himself. He deceives by truth. 
And not only is he crafty, but, when occasion 
demands, bold and fierce like a tiger, deter- 
mined, and even straightforward and undis- 
guised in his measures, — a daring fellow as well 
as a sly one. " 

This can be no other than Jonathan Cilley; 
like many of his class, a man of great good 
humor but not over-scrupulous, so far as the 
means he might make use of were concerned. 
He did not, however, prove to be as skilful a 
diplomat as Hawthorne seems to have supposed 
him. The duel between Cilley and Graves, of 
Kentucky, has been so variously misrepre- 
sented that the present occasion would seem a 

99 
t.CFC. 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

fitting opportunity to tell the plain truth con- 
cerning it. 

President Jackson was an honest man, in 
the customary sense of the term, and he would 
have scorned to take a dollar that was not his 
own; but he suffered greatly from parasites, 
who pilfered the nation's money, — the natural 
consequence of the spoils-of -office system. 
The exposure of these peculations gave the 
Whigs a decided advantage, and Cilley, who 
had quickly proved his ability in debate, at- 
tempted to set a back-fire by accusing Watson 
Webb, the editor of the Courier and Enquirer, 
of having been bribed to change the politics 
of his paper. The true facts of the case were, 
that the paper had been purchased by the 
Whigs, and Webb, of course, had a right to 
change his politics if he chose to; and the net 
result of Cilley 's attack was a challenge to mortal 
combat, carried by Representative Graves, of 
Kentucky. Cilley, although a man of courage, 
declined this, on the ground that members of 
Congress ought not to be called to account out- 
side of the Capitol, for words spoken in debate. 
"Then," said Graves, "you will at least admit 
that my friend is a gentleman. " 

This was a fair offer toward conciliation, 
and if Cilley had been peaceably inclined he 
would certainly have accepted it; but he ob- 
stinately refused to acknowledge that General 
Webb was a gentleman, and in consequence of 
this he received a second challenge the next 
day from Graves, brought by Henry A. Wise, 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

afterward Governor of Virginia. Cilley still 
objected to fighting, but members of his party 
urged him into it: the duel took place, and 
Cilley was killed. 

It may be said in favor of the " code of honor " 
that it discourages blackguardism and instructs 
a man to keep a civil tongue; but it is not al- 
ways possible to prevent outbursts of temper, 
especially in hot climates, and a man's wife and 
children should also be considered. Andrew 
Jackson said at the close of his life, that there 
was nothing he regretted so much as having 
killed a human being in a duel. Man rises by 
humility, and angels fall from pride. 

Hawthorne wrote a kindly and regretful 
notice of the death of his old acquaintance, 
which was published in the Democratic Review, 
and which closed with this significant passage: 

" Alas, that over the grave of a dear friend, 
my sorrow for the bereavement must be mingled 
with another grief — that he threw away such 
a life in so miserable a cause ! Why, as he was 
true to the Northern character in all things 
else, did he swerve from his Northern principles 
in this final scene?" * 

It will be well to bear this in mind in con- 
nection with a somewhat similar incident, 
which we have now to consider. 

An anecdote has been repeated in all the books 
about Hawthorne published since 1880, which 
would do him little credit if it could be proved, — 

* Conway, 63. 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

a story that he challenged one of his friends to a 
duel, at the instigation of a vulgar and unprin- 
cipled young woman. Horatio Bridge says in 
reference to it: 

"This characteristic was notably displayed several years 
later, when a lady incited him to quarrel with one of 
his best friends on account of a groundless pique of hers. 
He went to Washington for the purpose of challenging the 
gentleman, and it was only after ample explanation had been 
made, showing that his friend had behaved with entire 
honor, that Pierce and Cilley, who were his advisers, could 
persuade him to be satisfied without a fight." * 

How the good Horatio could have fallen into 
this pit is unimaginable, for a double contra- 
diction is contained in his statement. " Some 
time after this," that is after leaving college, 
would give the impression that the affair took 
place about 1830, whereas Pierce and Cilley 
were not in Washington together till five or six 
years later — probably seven years later. More- 
over, Hawthorne states in a letter to Pierce's 
friend O 'Sullivan, on April i, 1853, "that he had 
never been in Washington up to that time. 
The Manning family and Mrs. Hawthorne's 
relatives never heard of the story previous to 
its publication. 

The internal evidence is equally strong against 
it. What New England girl would behave in 
the manner that Hawthorne's son represents 
this one to have done? What young gentleman 
would have listened to such a communication 
as he supposes, and especially the reserved and 

* Bridge, 5. 
102 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

modest Hawthorne? One can even imagine 
the aspect of horror on his face at such an 
unlady-hke proceeding. The story would be 
an ignominious one for Hawthorne, if it were 
credible, but there is no occasion for our believing 
it until some tangible evidence is adduced in 
its support. There was no element of Quixo- 
tism in his composition, and it is quite as im- 
possible to locate the identity of the person 
whom Hawthorne is supposed to have challenged. 



103 



CHAPTER V 
Eos AND Eros: 1835-1839 

It was fortunate for Hawthorne that there 
was at this time a periodical in the United 
States, the North American Review, which was 
generally looked upon as an authority in litera- 
ture, and which in most instances deserved 
the confidence that was placed in it, for its re- 
views were written by men of distinguished 
ability. It was the North American Review 
which made the reputation of L. Maria Child, 
and which enrolled Hawthorne in the order 
of geniuses. 

There is not much literary criticism in Long- 
fellow's review, and he does not "rise to the 
level of the accomplished essayist" of our own 
time,* but he goes to the main point with the 
single-mindness of the true poet. " A new star, " 
he says, "has appeared in the skies" — a veri- 
table prediction. "Others will gaze at it with 
telescopes, and decide whether it is in the con- 
stellation of Orion or the Great Bear. It is 
enough for us to gaze at it, to admire it, and 
welcome it. " 

"Although Hawthorne writes in prose, he 
belongs among the poets. To every subject he 
touches he gives a poetic personality which 
emanates from the man himself. His sympathies 

* Who writes so correctly and says so little to the purpose. 
104 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

extend to all things living, and even to the 
inanimates. Another characteristic is the ex- 
ceeding beauty of his style. It is as clear as 
running waters are. Indeed he uses words as 
mere stepping-stones, upon which, with a free 
and youthful bound, his spirit crosses and re- 
crosses the bright and rushing stream of 
thought." 

Again he says: 

"A calm, thoughtful face seems to be looking 
at you from every page; with now a pleasant 
smile, and now a shade of sadness stealing 
over its features. Sometimes, though not 
often, it glares wildly at you, with a strange 
and painful expression, as, in the German 
romance, the bronze knocker of the Archivarius 
Lindhorst makes up faces at the Student Ansel- 
mus. " 

Here we have a portrait of Hawthorne, by 
one who knew him, in a few simple words; and 
behind a calm thoughtful face there is that 
mysterious unknown quantity which puzzles 
Longfellow here, and always perplexed Haw- 
thorne's friends. It may have been the nucleus 
or tap-root of his genius. 

Longfellow seems to have felt it as a dividing 
line between them. He probably felt so at 
college; and this brings us back to an old sub- 
ject. Hawthorne's superiority to Longfellow 
as an artist consisted essentially in this, that 
he was never an optimist. Puritanism looked 
upon human nature with a hostile eye, and was 
inclined to see evil in it where none existed; 

105 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

and Doctor Channing, who inaugurated the 
great moral movement which swept Puritan- 
ism away in this country, tended, as all re- 
formers do, to the opposite extreme, — to that 
scepticism of evil which, as George Brandes 
says, is greatly to the advantage of hypocrites 
and sharpers. This was justifiable in Doctor 
Channing, but among his followers it has often 
degenerated into an inverted or homoeopathic 
kind of Puritanism, — a habit of excusing the 
faults of others, or of themselves, on the score 
of good intentions — a habit of self-justification, 
and even to the perverse belief that, as every- 
thing is for the best, whatever we do in this 
world must be for good. To this class of senti- 
mentalists the most serious evil is truth-seeing 
and truth-speaking. It is an excellent plan 
to look upon the bright side of things, but one 
should not do this to the extent of blinding 
oneself to facts. Doctor Johnson once said to 
Boswell, " Beware, my friend, of mixing up 
virtue and vice;" but there is something worse 
than that, and it is, to stigmatize a writer as 
a pessimist or a hypochondriac for refusing to 
take rainbow-colored views. This, however, 
would never apply to Longfellow. 

Hawthorne, with his eye ever on the mark, 
pursued a middle course. He separated himself 
f^om the Puritans without joining their oppo- 
nents, and thus attained the most independent 
stand-point of any American writer of his time ; 
and if this alienated him from the various 
humanitarian movements that were going 

io6 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

forward, it was nevertheless a decided advantage 
for the work he was intended to do. In this 
respect he resembled Scott, Thackeray and 
George Eliot. 

What we call evil or sin is merely the nega- 
tive of civilization, — a tendency to return to 
the original savage condition. In the light of 
history, there is always progress or improve- 
ment, but in individual cases there is often the 
reverse, and so far as the individual is concerned 
evil is no imaginary metaphor, but as real and 
absolute as what we call good. The Bulgarian 
massacres of 1877 were a historical necessity, 
and we console ourselves in thinking of them 
by the fact that they may have assisted the 
Bulgarians in obtaining their independence; 
but this was no consolation to the twenty or 
thirty thousand human beings who were ground 
to powder there. To them there was no comfort, 
no hope, — only the terrible reality. Neither 
can we cast the responsibility of such events on 
the mysterious ways of Providence. The ways 
of Providence are not so mysterious to those 
who have eyes to read with. Take for instance 
one of the most notable cases of depravity, 
that of Nero. If we consider the conditions 
under which he was born and brought up, the 
necessity of that form of government to hold a 
vast empire together, and the course of history 
for a hundred years previous, it is not difficult 
to trace the genesis of Nero's crimes to the greed 
of the Roman people (especially of its merchants) 
for conquest and plunder; and Nero was the 

107 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

price which they were finally called on to pay 
for this. Marcus Aurelius, a noble nature reared 
under favorable conditions for its development, 
became the Washington of his time. 

It is the same in private life. In many families 
there are evil tendencies, which if they are per- 
mitted to increase will take permanent hold, 
like a bad demon, of some weak individual, and 
make of him a terror and a torment to his 
relatives — fortunate if he is not in a position 
of authority. He may serve as a warning to 
the general public, but in the domestic circle 
he is an unmitigated evil, — he or she, though it 
is not so likely to be a woman. When a crime 
is committed within the precincts of good 
society, we are greatly shocked; but we do not 
often notice the debasement of character which 
leads down to it, and still more rarely notice the 
instances in which fear or some other motive 
arrests demoralization before the final step, 
and leaves the delinquent as it were in a con- 
dition of moral suspense. 

It was in such tragic situations that Haw- 
thorne found the material which was best suited 
to the bent of his genius. 

In the two volumes, however, of " Twice Told 
Tales, " — the second published two years later, — 
the tragical element only appears as an under- 
current of pathos in such stories as " The Gentle 
Boy," "Wakefield," "The Maypole of Merry- 
mount, " and "The Haunted Mind, " but reaches 
a climax in "The Ambitious Guest" and "Lady 
Eleanor's Mantle." There are others, like 

io8 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

"Lights from a Steeple," and "Little Annie's 
Ramble," that are of a more cheerful cast, 
but are also much less serious in their composi- 
tion. "The Minister's Black Veil," "The Great 
Carbuncle," and "The Ambitious Guest," are 
Dantean allegories. We notice that each volume 
begins with a highly patriotic tale, the "Gray 
Champion," and "Howe's Masquerade," but 
the patriotism is genuine and almost fervid. 

When I first looked upon the house in which 
Hawthorne lived at Sebago, I was immediately 
reminded of these earlier studies in human 
nature, which are of so simple and quiet a diction, 
so wholly devoid of rhetoric, that Elizabeth 
Peabody thought they must be the work of his 
sister, and others supposed them to have been 
written by a Quaker. They resemble Diirer's 
wood-cuts, — gentle and tender in line, but 
unswerving in their fidelity. We sometimes 
wish that they were not so quiet and evenly 
composed, and then repent of our wish that 
anything so perfect should be different from 
what it is. His "Twice Told Tales" are a 
picture-gallery that may be owned in any house- 
hold. They stand alone in English, and there 
is not their like in any other language. 

Yet Hawthorne is not a word-painter like 
Browning and Carlyle, but obtains his pictorial 
effect by simple accuracy of description, a more 
difficult process than the other, but also more 
satisfactory. His eyes penetrate the masks 
and wrappings which cover human nature, as 
the Rontgen rays penetrate the human body. 

log 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

He sees a man's heart through the flesh and 
bones, and knows what is concealed in it. He 
ascends a church-steeple, and looking down 
from the belfry the whole life of the town is 
spread out before him. Men and women come 
and go — Hawthorne knows the errands they 
are on. He sees a militia company parading 
below, and they remind him from that elevation 
of the toy soldiers in a shop-window, — which 
they turned out to be, pretty much, at Bull 
Run. A fashionable young man comes along 
the street escorting two young ladies, and sud- 
denly at a crossing encounters their father, 
who takes them away from him; but one of 
them gives him a sweet parting look, which 
amply compensates him in its presage of future 
opportunities. How plainly that consolatory 
look appears between our eyes and the printed 
page! Then Hawthorne describes the grand 
march of a thunder-storm, — as in Rembrandt's 
"Three Trees," — with its rolling masses of dark 
vapor, preceded by a skirmish-line of white feath- 
ery clouds. The militia company is defeated at 
the first onset of this, its meteoric enemy, and 
driven under cover. The artillery of the skies 
booms and flashes about Hawthorne himself, until 
finally : " A little speck of azure has widened in the 
western heavens ; the sunbeams find a passage 
and go rejoicing through the tempest, and on yon- 
der darkest cloud, born like hallowed hopes of the 
glory of another world and the trouble and tears 
of this, brightens forth the rainbow." All this 
may have happened just as it is set down. 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

"Lady Eleanor's Mantle" exemplifies the 
old proverb, "Pride goeth before destruction," 
in almost too severe a manner, but the tale is 
said to have a legendary foundation; and "The 
Minister's Black Veil" is an equally awful 
symbolism for that barrier between man and 
man, which we construct through suspicion 
and our lack of frankness in our dealings with 
one another. We all hide ourselves behind 
veils, and, as Emerson says, " Man crouches 
and blushes, absconds and conceals." 

"The Ambitious Guest" allegorizes a vain 
imagination, and is the most important of these 
three. A young man suffers from a craving 
for distinction, which he believes will only come 
to him after this life is ended. He is walking 
through the White Mountains, and stops over- 
night at the house of the ill-fated Willey family. 
He talks freely on the subject of his vain expecta- 
tions, when Destiny, in the shape of an avalanche, 
suddenly overtakes him, and, buries him so 
deeply that neither his body nor his name has 
ever been recovered. Hawthorne might have 
drawn another allegory from the same source, 
for if the Willey family had trusted to Provi- 
dence, and remained in their house, instead of 
rushing out into the dark, they would not have 
lost their lives. 

In the Democratic Review for 1834, Hawthorne 
published the account of a visit to Niagara 
Falls, one of the fruits of his expedition thither 
in September, 1832, by way of the White Moun- 
tains and Burlington, the journey from Salem 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

to Niagara in those days being fully equal to 
going from New York to the cataracts of the 
Nile in our own time. "The Ambitious Guest" 
was published in the same volume with, it, and 
"The Ontario Steamboat" first appeared in 
the American Magazine of Useful and Entertain- 
ing Knowledge, in 1836. Hawthorne may have 
made other expeditions to the White Moun- 
tains, but we do not hear of them. 

In addition to the three studies already men- 
tioned, Hawthorne drew from this source the 
two finest of his allegories, "The Great Car- 
buncle" and "The Great Stone Face." 

"The Great Carbuncle" is not only one of 
the most beautiful of Hawthorne's tales, but 
the most far-reaching in its significance. The 
idea of it must have originated in the Alpine 
glow, an effect of the rising or setting sun on 
the icy peaks of a mountain, which looks at a 
distance like a burning coal; an appearance 
only visible in the White Mountains during the 
winter, and there is no reason why Hawthorne 
should not have seen it at that season from Lake 
Sebago. At a distance of twenty miles or more 
it blazes wonderfully, but on a nearer approach 
it entirely disappears. Hawthorne could not 
have found a more fascinating subject, and he 
imagines it for us as a great carbuncle located 
in the upper recesses of the mountains. 

A number of explorers for this wonderful 
gem meet together at the foot of the mountain 
beyond the confines of civilization, and build a 
hut in which to pass the night. They are recog- 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

nizable, from Hawthorne's description, as the 
man of one idea, who has spent his whole Hfe 
seeking the gem; a scientific experimenter who 
wishes to grind it up for the benefit of his crucible ; 
a cynical sceptic who has come to disprove the 
existence of the great gem; a greedy speculator 
who seeks the carbuncle as he would prospect 
for a silver-mine; an English lord who wishes 
to add it to his hereditary possessions; and 
finally a young married couple who want to 
obtain it for an ornament to their new cottage. 
The interest of the reader immediately centres 
on these last two, and we care much more con- 
cerning their fortunes and adventures than we 
do about the carbuncle. 

The conversation that evening between these 
ill-assorted companions is in Hawthorne's most 
subtle vein of irony, and would have delighted 
old Socrates himself. Meanwhile the young 
bride weaves a screen of twigs and leaves, to 
protect herself and her husband from the gaze 
of the curious. 

The following morning they all set out by 
different paths in search of the carbuncle; but 
our thoughts accompany the steps of the young 
bride, as she makes one toilsome ascent after 
another until she feels ready to sink to the 
ground with fatigue and discouragement. They 
have already decided to return, when the rosy 
light of the carbuncle bursts upon them from 
beneath the lifting clouds; but they now feel 
instinctively that it is too great a prize for their 
possession. The man of one idea also sees it, 

8 113 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

and his life goes out in the exultation over his 
final success. The sceptic appears, but cannot 
discover it, although his face is illumined by 
its light, until he takes off his large spectacles; 
whereupon, he instantly becomes blind. The 
English nobleman and the American speculator 
fail to discover it; the former returns to his 
ancestral halls, as wise as he was before; and 
the latter is captured by a party of Indians and 
obliged to pay a heavy ransom to regain freedom. 
The scientific pedant finds a rare specimen of 
primeval granite, which serves his purpose quite 
as well as the carbuncle; and the two young 
doves return to their cot, having learned the 
lesson of contentment. 

How fortunate was Hawthorne at the age of 
thirty thus to anatomize the chief illusions of 
life, which so many others follow until old age! 

It is an erroneous notion that Hawthorne 
found the chief material for his work in old 
New England traditions. There are some half- 
a-dozen sketches of this sort, but they are more 
formally written than the others, and remind 
one of those portraits by Titian which were 
painted from other portraits, — better than the 
originals, but not equal to those which he painted 
from Nature. 

In the "Sights from a Steeple" Hawthorne 
exposes his methods of study and betrays the 
active principle of his existence. He says: 

"The most desirable mode of existence might 
be that of a spiritualized Paul Pry hovering 
invisible round man and woman, witnessing 

114 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

their deeds, searching into their hearths, bor- 
rowing brightness from their feHcity and shade 
from their sorrow, and retaining no emotion 
pecuUar to himself." 

There are those who would dislike this busy- 
body occupation, and others, such as Emerson 
perhaps, might not consider it justifiable; but 
Hawthorne is not to be censured for it, for 
his motive was an elevated one, and without 
this close scrutiny of human nature we should 
have had neither a Hawthorne nor a Shake- 
speare. There is no quality more conspicuous 
in "Twice Told Tales" than the calm, evenly 
balanced mental condition of the author, who 
seems to look down on human life not so much 
from a church steeple as from the blue firma- 
ment itself. 

Such was the Eos or dawn of Hawthorne's 
literary art. 

Hawthorne returned thanks to Longfellow 
in a gracefully humorous letter, to which Long- 
fellow replied with a cordial wish to see Haw- 
thorne in Cambridge, and by advising him to 
dive into deeper water and write a history of 
the Acadians before and after their expulsion 
from Nova Scotia; but this was not practicable 
for minds like Hawthorne's, surcharged with 
poetic images, and the attempt might have 
proved a disturbing influence for him. He had 
already contributed the substance to Longfellow 
of "Evangeline, " and he now wrote a eulogium 
on the poem for a Salem newspaper, which it 
must be confessed did not differ essentially 

115 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

from other reviews of the same order. He does 
not give us any clear idea of how the poem 
actually impressed him, which is after all the 
best that one can do in such cases. Poetry 
is not like a problem in mathematics, which 
can be marked right or wrong according to its 
solution. 

When a young man obtains a substantial 
footing in his profession or business, he looks 
about him for a wife — unless he happens to be 
already pledged in that particular; and Haw- 
thorne was not an exception to this rule. He 
was not obliged to look very far, and yet the 
chance came to him in such an exceptional 
manner that it seems as if some special provi- 
dence were connected with it. His position in 
this respect was a peculiar one. He does not 
appear to have been much acquainted in Salem 
even now; and the only son of a widow with 
two unmarried sisters may be said to have 
rather a slim chance for escaping from those 
strong ties which have grown up between them 
from childhood. Many a mother has prevented 
her son from getting married until it has become 
too late for him to change his bachelor habits. 
His mother and his sisters realize that he ought 
to be married, and that he has a right to a home 
of his own; but in their heart of hearts they 
combat the idea, and their opposition takes 
the form of an unsparing criticism of any young 
lady whom he follows with his eyes. This 
frequently happens also in a family of girls: 

ii6 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

they all remain unmarried because, if one of 
them shows an inclination in that direction, the 
others unite in a conspiracy against her. On the 
other hand, a family of four or five boys will 
marry early, if they can obtain the means of 
doing so, simply from the need of feminine 
cheer and sympathy. A devoted female friend 
will sometimes prevent a young woman from 
being married. Love affairs are soft earth for 
an intriguing and unprincipled woman to work 
in, but, fortunately, Mrs. Hawthorne did not 
belong in that category. 

It was stout, large-hearted Elizabeth Peabody 
who broke the spell of the enchanted castle in 
which Hawthorne was confined. The Peabodys 
were a cultivated family in Salem, who lived 
pretty much by themselves, as the Hawthornes 
and Mannings did. Doctor Nathaniel Peabody 
was a respectable practitioner, but he had not 
succeeded in curing the headaches of his daughter 
Sophia, which came upon her at the close of her 
girlhood and still continued intermittently until 
this time. The Graces had not been bountiful 
to the Peabody family, so, to compensate for 
this, they all cultivated the Muses, in whose 
society they ascended no little distance on the 
way to Parnassus. Elizabeth Peabody was quite 
a feminine pundit. She learned French and 
German, and studied history and archeeology; 
she taught history on a large scale at Sanborn's 
Concord School and at many others; she had 
a method of painting dates on squares, which 
fixed them indelibly in the minds of her pupils; 

117 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

she talked at Margaret Fuller's transcendental 
club, and was an active member of the Radical 
or Chestnut Street Club, thirty years later; 
but her chief distinction was the introduction 
of Froebel's Kindergarten teaching, by which 
she well-nigh revolutionized primary instruction 
in America. She was a most self -forgetful 
person, and her scholars became devotedly 
attached to her. 

Her sister Mary was as much like Elizabeth 
mentally as she differed from her in figure and 
general appearance, but soon after this she 
was married to Horace Mann and her public 
activity became merged in that of her husband, 
who was the first educator of his time. Sophia 
Peabody read poetry and other fine writings, 
and acquired a fair proficiency in drawing and 
painting. They lived what was then called the 
"higher life," and it certainly led them to ex- 
cellent results. 

Shortly before the publication of "Twice 
Told Tales," Elizabeth Peabody learned that 
the author of "The Gentle Boy," and other 
stories which she had enjoyed in the Token, 
lived in Salem, and that the name was Haw- 
thorne. She immediately jumped to the con- 
clusion that they were the work of Miss Elizabeth 
Hawthorne, whom she had known somewhat 
in earlier days, and she concluded to call upon 
her and offer her congratulations. When in- 
formed by Louisa Hawthorne, who came to 
her in the parlor, instead of the elder sister, 
that " The Gentle Boy " was written by Na- 

ii8 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

thaniel, Miss Peabody made the significant 
remark, " If your brother can do work like that, 
he has no right to be idle"* — to which Miss 
Loiiisa retorted, it is to be hoped with some 
indignation, that her brother never was idle. 

It is only too evident from this that public 
opinion in Salem had already decided that 
Hawthorne was an idle fellow, who was living 
on his female relatives. That is the way the 
world judges — from external facts without 
any consideration of internal causes or condi- 
tions. It gratifies the vanity of those who are 
fortunate and prosperous, to believe that all 
men have an equal chance in the race of life. 
Emerson once blamed two young men for idle- 
ness, who were struggling against obstacles 
such as he could have had no conception of. 
Those who have been fortunate from the cradle 
never learn what life is really like. 

The spell, however, was broken and the 
friendliness of Elizabeth Peabody found a 
deeply sympathetic response in the Hawthorne 
household. Nathaniel at last found a person 
who expressed a genuine and heartfelt appre- 
ciation of his work, and it was like the return of 
the sun to the Arctic explorer after his long 
winter night. Rather to Miss Peabody's sur- 
prise he and his sisters soon returned her call, 
and visits between the two families thereafter 
became frequent. 



♦ Lathrop, i68. Miss Peabody would seem to have 
narrated this to him. 

119 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

Sophia Peabody belonged to the class of 
young women for whom Shakespeare's Ophelia 
serves as a typical example. She was gentle, 
affectionate, refined, and amiable to a fault, — 
much too tender-hearted for this rough world, 
if her sister Elizabeth had not always stood 
like a barrier between her and it. 

How Hawthorne might have acted in Hamlet's 
place it is useless to surmise, but in his true 
nature he was quite the opposite of Hamlet, — 
slow and cautious, but driven onward by an 
inexorable will. If Hamlet had possessed half 
of Hawthorne's determination, he might have 
broken through the network of evil conditions 
which surrounded him, and lived to make Ophelia 
a happy woman. It was only necessary to 
come into Hawthorne's presence in order to 
recognize the force that was in him. 
^_ Sophia Amelia Peabody was born September 
21, 181I, so that at the time of which we are 
now writing she was twenty-five years of age. 
Hawthorne was then thirty- two, when a man 
is more attractive to the fair sex than at any 
other time of life, for then he unites the freshness 
and vigor of youth with sufficient maturity of 
judgment to inspire confidence and trust. Yet 
her sister Elizabeth found it difficult to per- 
suade her to come into the parlor and meet the 
handsomest man in Salem. When she did 
come she evidently attracted Nathaniel Haw- 
thorne's attention, for, although she said little, 
he looked at her repeatedly while conversing 
with her sister. It may not have been an instance 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

of love at first sight, — which may happen to 
any young man at a dancing party, and be 
forgotten two days later, — but it was something 
more than a casual interest. On his second or 
third call she showed him a sketch she had 
made of "the gentle boy," according to her 
idea of him, and the subdued tone with which 
he received it plainly indicated that he was 
already somewhat under her influence. Julian 
Hawthorne writes of this : * 

"It may be remarked here, that Mrs. Hawthorne in telling 
her children, many years afterwards, of these first meet- 
ings with their father, used to say that his presence, 
from the very beginning, exercised so strong a magnetic 
attraction upon her, that instinctively, and in self-defence 
as it were, she drew back and repelled him. The power 
which she felt in him alarmed her; she did not understand 
what it meant, and was only able to feel that she must 
resist." 

Every true woman feels this reluctance at 
first toward a suitor for her hand, but a sensitive 
young lady might well have a sense of awe on 
finding that she had attracted to herself such a 
mundane force as Hawthorne, and it is no won- 
der that this first impression was recollected 
throughout her life. There are many who 
would have refused Hawthorne's suit, because 
they felt that he was too great and strong for 
them, and it is to the honor of Sophia Peabody 
that she was not only attracted by the magnet- 
ism of Hawthorne, but finally had the courage 
to unite herself to such an enigmatical person, 

* J. Hawthorne, i. 179. 
121 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

We also obtain a glimpse of Hawthorne's 
side of this courtship from a letter which he 
wrote to Longfellow in June, 1837, and in which 
he says," I have now, or shall soon have a sharper 
spur to exertion, which I lacked at an earlier 
period;" * and this is all the information he 
has vouchsafed us on the subject. If there is 
anything more in his diary, it has not been 
given to the public, and probably never will be. 
A number of letters which he wrote to Miss 
Sophia from Boston, or Brook Farm, have 
been published by his son, but it would be 
neither right nor judicious to introduce them 
here. 

It is, however, evident from the above that 
Hawthorne was already engaged in June, 1837, 
but his engagement long remained a secret, 
for three excellent reasons; viz., his slender 
means of support, the delicate health of his 
betrothed, and the disturbance which it might 
create in the Hawthorne family. The last did 
not prove so serious a difficulty as he seems to 
have imagined; but his apprehensiveness on 
that point many another could justify from 
personal experience. f 

From this time also the health of Sophia 
Peabody steadily improved, nor is it necessary 
to account for it by any magical influence on 
the part of her lover. Her trouble was plainly 
some recondite difficulty of the circulation. 
The heart is supposed to be the seat of the 

* Conway, 75. 

t J. Hawthorne, i. 196. 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

affections because mental emotion stimulates 
the nervous system and acts upon the heart as 
the centre of all organic functions. A healthy 
natural excitement will cause the heart to vibrate 
more firmly and evenly; but an unhealthy 
excitement, like fear or anger, will cause it to 
beat in a rapid and uneven manner. Contra- 
rily, despondency, or a lethargic state of mind, 
causes the movement of the blood to slacken. 
The happiness of love is thus the best of all 
stimulants and correctives for a torpid circu- 
lation, and it expands the whole being of a 
woman like the blossoming of a flower in the 
sunshine. From the time of her betrothal, 
Sophia Peabody's headaches became less and 
less frequent, until they ceased altogether. 
The true seat of the affections is in the mind. 
The first consideration proved to be a more 
serious matter. If Hawthorne had not suc- 
ceeded in earning his own livelihood by literature 
so far, what prospect was there of supporting 
a wife and family in that manner? What should 
he do ; whither should he turn ? He continually 
turned the subject over in his mind, without, 
however, reaching any definite conclusion. 
Nor is this to be wondered at. If the ordinary 
avenues of human industry were not available 
to him as a college graduate, they were now 
permanently closed. A man in his predica- 
ment at the present time might obtain the 
position of librarian in one of our inland cities; 
but such places are few and the applications are 
many. Bronson Alcott once offered his services 

123 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

as teacher of a primary school, a position he 
might have filled better than most, for its one 
reqiiisite is kindliness, but the Concord school 
committee would not hear of it. If Hawthorne 
had attempted to turn pedagogue he might 
have met with a similar experience. 

Conway remarks very justly that an American 
author could not be expected to earn his own 
living in a country where foreign books could 
be pirated as they were in the United States 
until 1890, and this was especially true during 
the popularity of Dickens and George Eliot. 
Dickens was the great humanitarian writer of 
the nineteenth century, but he was also a cari- 
caturist and a bohemian. He did not represent 
life as it is, but with a certain comical oddity. 
As an author he is to Hawthorne what a peony 
is to a rose, or a garnet is to a ruby ; but ten 
persons would purchase a novel of Dickens 
when one would select the "Twice Told Tales." 
Scott and Tennyson are exceptional instances 
of a high order of literary work which also 
proved fairly remunerative; but they do not 
equal Hawthorne in grace of diction and in 
the rare quality of his thought, — whatever 
advantages they may possess in other respects. 
Thackeray earned his living by his pen, but it 
was only in England that he could have done 
this. 



124 



CHAPTER VI 

Pegasus at the Cart: 1839-1841 

Horatio Bridge's dam was washed away 
in the spring of 1837, by a sudden and unpre- 
cedented rising of the Androscoggin River. 
Bridge was financially ruined, but like a brave 
and generous young man he did not permit this 
stroke of evil fortune, severe as it was, to oppress 
him heavily, and Hawthorne seems to have 
felt no shadow of it during his visit to Augusta 
the following summer. He returned to Salem 
in August with pleasanter anticipations than 
ever before, — to enjoy the society of his fiancee, 
and to prepare the second volume of "Twice 
Told Tales." 

The course of Hawthorne's life during the 
next twenty months is mostly a blank to us. 
He would seem to have exerted himself to escape 
from the monotone in which he had been living 
so long, but of his efforts, disappointments, 
and struggles against the giant coils of Fate, 
there is no report. He wrote the four Province 
House tales as a send-off to his second volume, 
as well as "The Toll-Gatherer's Day," "Foot- 
prints on the Seashore," " Snow-Flakes, " and 
"Chippings with a Chisel," which are to be 
found in it.* There is a long blank in Haw- 
thorne's diary during the winter of 1837-38, 

* J. Hawthorne, 176. 

125 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

which may be owing to his indifference to the 
outer world at that time, but more Hkely be- 
cause its contents have not yet been revealed 
to us. It was the period of Cilley's duel, and 
what Hawthorne's reflections were on that 
subject, aside from the account which he wrote 
for the Democratic Review, would be highly 
interesting now, but the absence of any reference 
to it is significant, and there is no published 
entry in his diary between December 6, 1837, 
and May 11, 1838. 

Horatio Bridge obtained the position of pay- 
master on the United States warship "Cyane," 
which arrived at Boston early in June, and 
on the 1 6th of the month Hawthorne went to 
call on his friend in his new quarters, which he 
found to be pleasant enough in their narrow 
and limited way. Bridge returned with him to 
Boston, and they dined together at the Tremont 
House, drinking iced champagne and claret in 
pitchers, — which latter would seem to have 
been a fashion of the place. Hawthorne's 
description of the day is purely external, and 
he tells us nothing of his friend, — concerning 
whom we were anxious to hear, — or of the new 
life on which he had entered. 

On July 4, his thirty-fifth birthday, he wrote 
a microscopic account of the proceedings on 
Salem Common, which is interesting now, but 
will become more valuable as time goes on and 
the customs of the American people change 
with it. The object of these detailed pictorial 
studies, which not only remind one of Diirer's 

126 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

drawings but of Carlyle's local descriptions 
(when he uses simple English and does not fly- 
off into recondite comparisons), is not cleariy 
apparent; but the artist has instincts of his 
own, like a vine which swings in the wind and 
seizes upon the first tree that its tendrils come 
into contact with. We sometimes wish that, 
as in the case of Bridge and his warship, they were 
not so objective and external, and that, like 
Carlyle, he would throw more of himself into 
them. 

On July 27, Hawthorne started on an expedi- 
tion to the Berkshire Hills, by way of Worcester, 
remaining there nearly till the first of September, 
and describing the scenery, the people he met 
by the way, and the commencement at Wil- 
liams College, which then took place in the 
middle of August, in his customary accurate 
manner. He has given a full and connected 
account of his travels; so full that we wonder 
how he found time to write to Miss Sophia 
Peabody. He would seem to have been entirely 
alone, and to have travelled mainly by stage. 
On the route from Pittsfield to North Adams 
he notices the sunset, and describes it in these 
simple terms :* 

"After or about sunset there was a heavy 
shower, the thunder rumbling round and round 
the mountain wall, and the clouds stretching 
from rampart to rampart. When it abated 
the clouds in all parts of the visible heavens 
were tinged with glory from the west; some 

* American Note-book, 130. 
127 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

that hung low being purple and gold, while 
the higher ones were gray. The slender curve 
of the new moon was also visible, brightening 
amidst the fading brightness of the sunny part 
of the sky." 

At North Adams he takes notice of one of 
the Select-men, and gives this account of him:* 

" One of the most sensible men in this village 
is a plain, tall, elderly person, who is over- 
seeing the mending of a road, — humorous, 
intelligent, with much thought about matters 
and things; and while at work he had a sort 
of dignity in handling the hoe or crow-bar, 
which shows him to be the chief. In the even- 
ing he sits under the stoop, silent and observant 
from under the brim of his hat; but, occasion 
suiting, he holds an argument about the benefit 
or otherwise of manufactories or other things. 
A simplicity characterizes him more than ap- 
pertains to most Yankees. " 

He did not return to Salem until September 
24. A month later he was at the Tremont 
House in Boston, looking out of the windows 
toward Beacon Street, which may have served 
him for an idea in "The Blithedale Romance." 
After this there are no entries published from 
his diary till the following spring, so that the 
manner in which he occupied himself during 
the winter of 1838-39 will have to be left to 
the imagination. On April 27, 1839, he wrote 
a letter to Miss Sophia Peabody from Boston, 
in which he says: 

* American Note-book, 153. 
128 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

"I feel pretty secure against intruders, for 
the bad weather will defend me from foreign 
invasion; and as to Cousin Haley, he and I 
had a bitter political dispute last evening, at 
the close of which he went to bed in high dud- 
geon, and probably will not speak to me these 
three days. Thus you perceive that strife and 
wrangling, as well as east winds and rain, are 
the methods of a kind Providence to promote 
my comfort, — which would not have been so 
well secured in any other way. Six or seven 
hours of cheerful solitude! But I will not be 
alone. I invite your spirit to be with me, — 
at any hour and as many hours as you please, 
but especially at the twilight hour before I 
light my lamp. I bid you at that particular 
time, because I can see visions more vividly 
in the dusky glow of firelight than either by 
daylight or lamplight. Come, and let me renew 
my spell against headache and other direful 
effects of the east wind. How I wish I could 
give you a portion of my insensibility! and 
yet I should be almost afraid of some radical 
transformation, were I to produce a change 
in that respect. If you cannot grow plump 
and rosy and tough and vigorous without being 
changed into another nature, then I do think, 
for this short life, you had better remain just 
what you are. Yes; but you will be the same 
to me, because we have met in eternity, and 
there our intimacy was formed. So get well 
as soon as you possibly can. " 

This statement deserves consideration under 
9 129 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

two headings; and the last shall be first, and 
the first shall be last. 

It will be noticed that the accounts in Haw- 
thorne's diary are for the most part of a dis- 
passionate objective character, as if he had 
come down from the moon to take an observa- 
tion of mundane affairs. His letters to Miss 
Peabody were also dispassionate, but strongly 
subjective, and, like the one just quoted, mainly 
evolved from his imagination, like orchids 
living in the air. It was also about this time 
that Carlyle wrote to Emerson concerning the 
Dial that it seemed "like an unborn human 
soul. " The orchid imagination was an influence 
of the time, penetrating everywhere like an ether. 

In the opening sentences in this letter, Haw- 
thorne comes within an inch of disclosing his 
political opinions, and yet provokingly fails 
to do so. There is nothing about the man con- 
cerning which we are so much in the dark, and 
which we should so much like to know, as this ; 
and it is certain from this letter that he held 
very decided opinions on political subjects and 
could defend them with a good deal of energy. 
On one occasion when Hawthorne was asked 
why he was a Democrat, he replied, " Because 
I live in a democratic country," which was, of 
course, simply an evasion; and such were the 
answers which he commonly gave to all inter- 
rogatories. His proclivities were certainly not 
democratic; but the greater the tenacity with 
which a man holds his opinions, the less inclined 
he feels to discuss them with others. The 

130 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

Boston aristocracy now vote the Democratic 
ticket out of opposition to the dominant party 
in Massachusetts, and Hawthorne may have 
done so for a similar reason. • 

Hawthorne was now a weigher and gauger 
in the Boston Custom House, one of the most 
laborious positions in the government service. 
The defalcation of Swartwout with over a million 
of dollars from the New York customs' receipts 
had forced upon President Van Buren the 
importance of filling such posts with honorable 
men, instead of political shysters, and Bancroft, 
though a rather narrow historian, was a gentle- 
man and a scholar. He was the right man to 
appreciate Hawthorne, but whether he bestowed 
this place upon him of his own accord, or through 
the ulterior agency of Franklin Pierce, we are ,, , , , 
not informed. It is quite possible that Eliza- / »-^^-^^ 
beth Peabody had a hand in the case, for she 
was always an indefatigable petitioner for the 
benefit of the needy, and had opportunities 
for meeting Bancroft in Boston society. His 
kindness to Hawthorne was at least some com- 
pensation for having originated the most ill- 
favored looking public building in the city.* 

Hawthorne's salary was twelve hundred dol- 
lars a year, — fully equal to eighteen himdred 
at the present time, — and his position appears 
to have been what is now called a store-keeper. 
He fully earned his salary. He had charge and 
oversight of all the dutiable imports that came 

* The present Boston Custom House. George S. Hillard 
called it an architectural monstrosity. 

131 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

to Long Wharf, the most important in the city, 
and was obliged to keep an account of all duti- 
able articles which were received there. He 
had to superintend personally the unloading 
of vessels, and although in some instances this 
was not unpleasant, he was constantly receiving 
shiploads of soft coal, — Sidney or Pictou coal, — 
which is the dirtiest stufi in the world ; it cannot 
be touched without raising a dusty vapor which 
settles in the eyes, nose, and mouth, and inside 
the shirt-collar. He counted every basketful 
that was brought ashore, and his position on 
such occasions was to be envied only by the 
sooty laborers who handled that commodity. 
We wonder what the frequenters of Long Wharf 
thought of this handsome, poetic-looking man 
occupied in such a business. 

Yet he appreciated the value of this Spartan 
discipline, — the inestimable value of being for 
once in his life brought down to hard-pan and 
the plain necessities of life. The juice of worm- 
wood is bitter, but it is also strengthening. On 
July 3, 1839, he wrote: * 

" I do not mean to imply that I am unhappy 
or discontented, for this is not the case. My 
life only is a burden in the same way that it is 
to every toilsome man, and mine is a healthy 
weariness, such as needs only a night's sleep 
to remove it. But from henceforth forever I 
shall be entitled to call the sons of toil my 
brethren, and shall know how to sympathize 
with them, seeing that I likewise have risen 

* American Note-book. 
132 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

at the dawn, and borne the fervor of the midday- 
sun, nor turned my heavy footsteps homeward 
till eventide. Years hence, perhaps, the ex- 
perience that my heart is acquiring now will 
flow out in truth and wisdom. " 

This is one of the noblest passages in his 
writings. 

On August 27 he notices the intense heat in 
the centre of the city, although it is somewhat 
cooler on the wharves. At this time Emerson 
may have been composing his "Wood Notes" 
or "Threnody" in the cool pine groves of Con- 
cord. Such is the difference between inheriting 
twenty thousand dollars and two thousand. 
Hawthorne lived in Boston at such a boarding- 
place as Doctor Holmes describes in the " Auto- 
crat of the Breakfast Table," and for all we 
know it may have been the same one. He lived 
economically, reading and writing to Miss 
Peabody in the evening, and rarely going to 
the theatre or other entertainments, — a life 
like that of a store clerk whose salary only 
suffices for his board and clothing. George 
Bancroft was kindly disposed toward him, and 
would have introduced Hawthorne into any so- 
ciety that he could have wished to enter; but 
Hawthorne, then and always, declined to be 
lionized. Ha^vthorne made but one friend in 
Boston during this time, and that one, George S. 
Hillard, a most faithful and serviceable friend, 
— not only to Hawthorne during his life, but 
afterwards as a trustee for his family, and 
equally kind and helpful to them in their 

133 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

bereavement, which is more than could be 
said of all his friends, — especially of Pierce. 
Hillard belonged to the brilliant coterie of Cam- 
bridge literary men, which included Longfellow, 
Sumner and Felton. He was a lawyer, poli- 
tician, editor, orator and author; at this time, 
or shortly afterward, Sumner's law partner; 
one of the most kindly sympathetic men, with 
a keen appreciation of all that is finest in art 
and literature, but somewhat lacking in firm- 
ness and independence of character. His "Six 
Months in Italy, " written in the purest English, 
long served as a standard work for American 
travellers in that ideal land, and his rather 
unsymmetrical figure only made the graces of his 
oratory more conspicuous. 

Hawthorne kept at his work through summer's 
heat and winter's cold. On February ii, 1840, 
he wrote to his fiancee: 

"I have been measuring coal all day, on board of a 
black little British schooner, in a dismal dock at the north 
end of the city. Most of the time I paced the deck to keep 
myself warm. . 

Sometimes I descended into the dirty little 
cabin of the schooner, and warmed myself by a red-hot 
stove among biscuit barrels, pots and kettles, sea chests, 
and innumerable lumber of all sorts, — my olfactories, mean- 
while, being greatly refreshed by the odor of a pipe, which 
the captain or some of his crew was smoking." 

One would have to go to Dante's "Inferno" 
to realize a situation more thoroughly disagree- 
able ; yet the very pathos of Hawthorne's em- 
ployment served to inspire him with elevated 

134 




HAWTHORNE. FROM THE PORTRAIT BY CHARLES OSGOOD IN I 84O. IN 
THE POSSESSION OF MRS. RICHARD C. MANNING, SALEM, MASS. FROM 
NEGATIVE IN POSSESSION OF AND OWNED BY FRANK COUSIN, SALEM 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

thoughts and beautiful reflections. His letters 
are full of aerial fancies. He notices what a 
beautiful day it was on April i8, 1840, and 
regrets that he cannot " fling himself on a gentle 
breeze and be blown away into the country." 
April 30 is another beautiful day, — "a real 
happiness to live; if he had been a mere veg- 
etable, a hawthorn bush, he would have felt 
its influence." He goes to a picture-gallery in 
the Athenaeum, but only mentions seeing two 
paintings by Sarah Clarke. He returns to Salem 
in October, and writes in his own chamber the 
passage already quoted, in which he mourns 
the lonely years of his youth, and the long, 
long waiting for appreciation, "while he felt 
the life chilling in his veins and sometimes it 
seemed as if he were already in the grave;" 
but an early return to his post gives him brighter 
thoughts. He takes notice of the magnificent 
black and yellow butterflies that have strangely 
come to Long Wharf, as if seeking to sail to 
other climes since the last flower had faded. 
Mr. Bancroft has appointed him to suppress an 
insurrection among the government laborers, 
and he writes to Miss Sophia Peabody : 

"I was not at the end of Long Wharf to-day, but in a dis- 
tant region, — my authority having been put in requisition 
to quell a rebelHon of the captain and 'gang' of shovellers 
aboard a coal- vessel. I would you could have beheld the 
a\yful sternness of my visage and demeanor in the execution 
of this momentous duty. Well, — I have conquered the 
rebels, and proclaimed an amnesty; so to-morrow I shall 
return to that paradise of measurers, the end' of Long 
Wharf, — not to my former salt-ship, she being now dis- 

135 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

charged, but to another, which will probably employ me 
well-nigh a fortnight longer. " 

A month later we meet with this ominous re- 
mark in his diary : 

"I was invited to dine at Mr. Bancroft's yesterday with 
Miss Margaret Fuller; but Providence had given me some 
business to do, for which I was very thankful. " 

Had Hawthorne already encountered this 
remarkable woman with the feminine heart and 
masculine mind, and had he already conceived 
that aversion for her which is almost painfully 
apparent in his Italian diary? Certainly in 
many respects they were antipodes. 

The Whig party came into power on March 
4, 1 84 1, with "Tippecanoe" for a figure-head 
and Daniel Webster as its conductor of the 
"grand orchestra." A month later Bancroft 
was removed, and Hawthorne went with him, 
not at all regretful to depart. In fact, he had come 
to feel that he could not endure the Custom 
House, or at least his particular share of it, 
any longer. One object he had in view in ac- 
cepting the position was, to obtain practical 
experience, and this he certainly did in a rough 
and unpleasant manner. The experience of a 
routine office, however, is not like that of a 
broker who has goods to sell and who must dis- 
pose of them to the best advantage, in order to 
keep his reputation at high-water mark; nor 
is it like the experience of a young doctor or a 
lawyer struggling to obtain a practice. Those 
are the men who know what life actually is; 

136 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

and it is this thoroughness of experience which 
makes the chief difference between a Dante 
and a Tennyson. 

These reflections lead directly to Hawthorne's 
casual and oft-repeated commentary on Ameri- 
can politicians. He wrote March 15: 

"I do detest all offices — all, at least, that 
are held on a political tenure. And I want 
nothing to do with politicians. Their hearts 
wither away, and die out of their bodies. Their 
consciences are turned to india-rubber, or to 
some substance as black as that, and which 
will stretch as much. One thing, if no more, 
I have gained by my custom-house experience, 
— to know a politician. " * 

This seems rather severe, but at the time 
when Hawthorne wrote it, American politics 
were on the lowest plane of demagogism. It 
was the inevitable result of the spoils-of-office 
system, and the meanest species of the class 
were the ward politicians who received small 
government offices in return for services in can- 
vassing ignorant foreign voters. They were 
naturally coarse, hardened adventurers, and 
it was such that Hawthorne chiefly came in 
contact with in his official business. Cleon, 
the brawling tanner of Athens, has reappeared 
in every representative government since his 
time, and plays his clownish part with multi- 
farious variations; but it is to little purpose 
that we deride the men who govern us, for 

* American Note-book, i. 220. 
137 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

they are what we and our institutions have made 
them. If we want better representatives, we 
must mend our own ways and especially purge 
ourselves of political cant and national vanity, 
— which is the food that ward politicians grow 
fat on. The profession of a politician is based 
on instability, and he cannot acquire, as matters 
now stand, the solidity of character that we 
look for in other professions. 

So far, however, was Hawthorne at this 
juncture from considering men and things 
critically, that he closes the account of his first 
government experience in this rather optimistic 
manner : 

"Old Father Time has gone onward some- 
what less heavily than is his wont when I am 
imprisoned within the walls of the Custom-house. 
My breath had never belonged to anybody 
but me. It came fresh from the ocean . . . 

. , It was exhilarating to see the vessels, 
how they bounded over the waves, while a sheet 
of foam broke out around them. I found a 
good deal of enjoyment, too, in the busy scene 
around me. It pleased me to think that I also 
had a part to act in the material and tangible 
business of this life, and that a portion of all 
this industry could not have gone on without 
my presence. " * 

When Hawthorne philosophizes it is not in 
old threadbare proverbs or Orphic generali- 
ties, but always specifically and to the point. 

* American Note-book, i. 230. 
138 



CHAPTER VII 

Hawthorne as a Socialist: 1841-1842 

Who can compute the amount of mischief 
that Fourier has done, and those well-meaning 
but inexperienced dreamers who have followed 
after him? A Fourth-of-July fire-cracker once 
consumed the half of a large city. The boy 
who exploded it had no evil intentions; neither 
did Fourier and other speculators in philan- 
thropy contemplate what might be the effect 
of their doctrines on minds actuated by the 
lowest and most inevitable wants. Wendell 
Phillips, in the most brilliant of his orations, 
said: "The track of God's lightning is a straight 
line from justice to iniquity," and one might 
have said to Phillips, in his later years, that 
there is in the affairs of men a straight line 
from infatuation to destruction. In what degree 
Fourier was responsible for the effusion of blood 
in Paris in the spring of 187 1 it is not possible 
to determine; but the relation of Rousseau to 
the first French revolution is not more certain. 
Fate is the spoken word which cannot be re- 
called, and who can tell the good and evil con- 
sequences that lie hidden in it? The proper 
cure for socialism, in educated minds, would 
be a study of the law. There we discover what 
a wonderful mechanism is the present organiza- 
tion of society, and how difficult it would be to 
reconstruct this, if it once were overturned. 

139 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

As society is constituted at present, the honest 
and industrious are always more or less at the 
mercy of the vicious and indolent, and the only 
protection against this lies in the right of in- 
dividual ownership. In a general community 
of goods, there might be some means of prevent- 
ing or punishing flagrant misdemeanors, but 
what protection could there be against indolence ? 
Those who were ready and willing to work 
would have to bear all the burdens of society. 
In order that an idea should take external 
or concrete form it has to be married, as it were, 
to some desire or tendency in the individual. 
Reverend George Ripley had become imbued 
with Fourierism through his studies of French 
philosophy, but he had also been brought up 
on a farm, and preferred the fresh air and vigorous 
exercise of that mode of life to city preaching. 
He was endowed with a strong constitution and 
possessed of an independent fortune, and his 
aristocratic wife, more devoted than women of 
that class are usually, sympathized with his 
plans, and was prepared to follow him to the 
ends of the earth. He not only felt great enthusi- 
asm for the project but was capable of inspiring 
others with it. There were many socialistic 
experiments undertaken about that time, but 
George Ripley's was the only one that has 
acquired a historical value. It is much to his 
credit that he gave the scheme a thorough 
trial, and by carrying it out to a logical con- 
clusion proved its radical impracticability. 
Such a failure is more valuable than the successes 

140 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

of a hundred men who merely make their own 
fortunes and leave no legacy of experience 
that can benefit the human race. 

It must have been Elizabeth Peabody who 
persuaded Hawthorne to enlist in the Brook Farm 
enterprise. She wrote a paper for the Dial* 
on the subject, explaining the object of the 
West Roxbury community and holding forth 
the prospect of the "higher life" which could 
be enjoyed there. Hawthorne was in himself 
the very antipodes of socialism, and it was 
part of the irony of his life that he should have 
embarked in such an experiment; but he in- 
vested a thousand dollars in it, which he had 
saved from his Custom House salary, and was 
one of the first on the ground. What he really 
hoped for from it — as we learn by his letters 
to Miss Sophia Peabody — was a means of gain- 
ing his daily bread, with leisure to accomplish 
a fair amount of writing, and at the same time 
to enter into such society as might be congenial 
to his future consort. It seemed reasonable 
to presume this, and yet the result did not 
correspond to it. He went to West Roxbury 
on April 12, 1841, and as it happened in a driving 
northeast snow-storm, — an unpropitious be- 
ginning, of which he has given a graphic 
account in "The Blithedale Romance." 

At first he liked his work at the Farm. The 
novelty of it proved attractive to him. On May 
3 he wrote a letter to his sister Louisa, which 

* Dial, ii. 361. 
141 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

reflects the practical nature of his new sur- 
roundings; and it must be confessed that this 
is a refreshing change from the sublunary 
considerations at his Boston boarding-house. 
He has already " learned to plant potatoes, to 
milk cows, and to cut straw and hay for the 
cattle, and does various other mighty works. " 
He has gained strength wonderfully, and can 
do a day's work without the slightest incon- 
venience; wears a tremendous pair of cowhide 
boots. He goes to bed at nine, and gets up at 
half-past four to sound the rising-horn, — much 
too early for a socialistic paradise, where human 
nature is supposed to find a pleasant as well 
as a salutary existence. George Ripley would 
seem to be driving the wedge in by the larger 
end. Hawthorne is delighted with the topo- 
graphical aspect, and writes: 

"This is one of the most beautiful places I 
ever saw in my life, and as secluded as if it were 
a hundred miles from any city or village. There 
are woods, in which we can ramble all day with- 
out meeting anybody or scarcely seeing a house. 
Our house stands apart from the main road, 
so that we are not troubled even with passengers 
looking at us. Once in a while w^e have a tran- 
scendental visitor, such as Mr. Alcott; but 
generally we pass whole days without seeing 
a single face save those of the brethren. The 
whole fraternity eat together ; and such a delect- 
able way of life has never been seen on earth 
since the days of the early Christians." * 

* J. Hawthorne, i. 228. 
142 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

From Louisa Hawthorne's reply, it may be 
surmised that his family did not altogether 
approve of the Brook Farm venture, perhaps 
because it withdrew him from his own home at 
a time when they had looked with fond expecta- 
tion for his return; and here we have a glimpse 
into the beautiful soul of this younger sister, 
otherwise so little known to us. Elizabeth is 
sceptical of its ultimate success, but Louisa is 
fearful that he may work too hard and wants 
him to take good care of himself. She is delighted 
with the miniature of him, which they have lately 
received : "It has one advantage over the 
original, — I can make it go with me where I 
choose!" 

Louisa wrote another warm and beautiful 
letter on June ii, recalling the days when they 
used to go fishing together on Lake Sebago, 
and adds: 

"Elizabeth Cleveland says she saw Mr. George Bradford 
in Lowell last winter, and he told her he was going to be 
associated with you; but they say his mind misgave him 
terribly when the time came for him to go to Roxbury, 
and whether to make such a desperate step or not he could 
not tell." * 

George P. Bradford was the masculine com- 
plement to Elizabeth Peabody — flitting across 
the paths of Emerson and Hawthorne through- 
out their lives. His name appears con- 
tinually in the biographies of that time, 
but future generations would never know the 
sort of man he was, but for Louisa's amiable 

* J. Hawthorne, i. 232. 
143 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

commentary. He appeared at Brook Farm a 
few days later, and became one of George Rip- 
ley's strongest and most faithful adherents. 
He is the historian of the West Roxbury com- 
munity, and late in life the editor of the Century 
asked him to write a special account of it for 
that periodical. Bradford did so, and received 
one hundred dollars in return for his manu- 
script; but it never was published, presumably 
because it was too original for the editor's 
purpose. 

Is it possible that Hawthorne put on a good 
face for this letter to his sister, in order to keep 
up appearances; or was it like the common 
experience of music and drawing teachers that 
the first lessons are the best performed; or did 
he really have some disagreement with Ripley, 
like that which he represents in "The Blithedale 
Romance" ? The last is the more probable, 
although we do not hear of it otherwise. Spring 
is the least agreeable season for farming, with 
its muddy soil, its dressing the ground, its weeds 
to be kept down and its insects to be kept off. 
After the first week of June, the work becomes 
much pleasanter; and the harvesting is delight- 
ful, — stacking the grain, picking the fruit, — 
with the cheery wood fires, so restful to mind 
and body. Yet we find on August 12 that 
Hawthorne had become thoroughly disenchanted 
with his Arcadian life, although he admits that 
the labors of the farm were not so pressing as 
they had been. Ten days later, he refers to 
having spent the better part of a night with 

144 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

one of his co-workers, "who was quite out of 
his wits" and left the community next day. 
He then continues in his diary : * 

"It is extremely doubtful whether Mr. Ripley 
will succeed in locating his community on the 

farm. He can bring Mr. E to no terms, 

and the more they talk about the matter, the 
further they appear to be from a settlement. 
We must form other plans for ourselves; for 
I can see few or no signs that Providence pur- 
poses to give us a home here. I am weary, 
weary, thrice weary, of waiting so many ages. 
Whatever may be my gifts, I have not hitherto 
shown a single one that may avail to gather 
gold." 

Here are already three disaffected personages, 
desirous of escaping from an earthly paradise. 
Mr. Ripley has by no means an easy row to 
hoe. Yet he keeps on ploughing steadily through 
his difficulties, as he did through the soil of 
his meadows. In September we find Hawthorne 
at Salem, and on the third he writes: f 

" But really I should judge it to be twenty 
years since I left Brook Farm; and I take this 
to be one proof that my life there was unnatural 
and unsuitable, and therefore an unreal one. 
It already looks like a dream behind me. The 
real Me was never an associate of the com- 
munity: there has been a spectral appearance 
there, sounding the horn at daybreak, and 

* American Note-book, ii. 15. 
t American Note-book, ii. 16. 
10 145 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

milking the cows, and hoeing potatoes, and 
raking hay, toiHng in the sun, and doing me 
the honor to assume my name. But this spectre 
was not myself. " 

This idea of himself as a spectre seems to 
have accompanied him much in the way that the 
daemon did Socrates, and to have served in a 
similar manner as a warning to him. He left Brook 
Farm almost exactly as he describes himself 
doing, in "The Blithedale Romance," and he 
returned again on the twenty-second, but the 
brilliant woodland carnival which he describes, 
both in his " Note-book " and in "The Blithedale 
Romance," did not take place there until Sep- 
tember 28. It was a masquerade in which Mar- 
garet Fuller and Emerson appeared as invited 
guests, and held a meeting of the Transcenden- 
tal club "sub tegmine fagi." As Hawthorne 
remarks, "Much conversation followed," — ^in 
which he evidently found little to interest him. 
Margaret Fuller also made a present of a heifer 
to the live-stock of the Farm, of whose unruly 
gambols Hawthorne seems to have taken more 
particular notice. He would seem in fact to have 
attributed the same characteristics to the animal 
and its owner. 

Having more time at his own disposal, he 
now attempted to write another volume of 
history for Peter Parley's library, but, although 
this was rather a childish affair, he found him- 
self unequal to it. "I have not," he said, "the 
sense of perfect seclusion here, which has always 
been essential to my power of producing any- 

146 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

thing. It is true, nobody intrudes into my 
room; but still I cannot be quiet. Nothing 
here is settled; and my mind will not be ab- 
stracted." During the whole of October he 
went on long woodland walks, sometimes alone 
and at others with a single companion. He 
tried, like Emerson, courting Nature in her 
solitudes, and made the acquaintance of her 
denizens as if he were the original Adam taking 
an account of his animal kingdom. He picks 
up a terrapin, the Eniys picta, which attempts 
to hide itself from him. in a stone wall, and 
carries it considerately to a pond of water; but 
there is not much to be found in the woods, 
and one can travel a whole day in the forest 
primeval without coming across anything better 
than a few squirrels and small birds. In fact, 
two young sportsmen once rode on horseback 
with their guns from the Missouri River to the 
Pacific Ocean without meeting any larger game 
than prairie-chickens. 

It was all in vain. Hawthorne's nature was 
not like Emerson's, and what stimulated the 
latter mentally made comparatively little im- 
pression on the former. Hawthorne found, 
then as always, that in order to practice his art, 
he must devote himself to it, wholly and com- 
pletely, leaving side issues to go astern. In 
order to create an ideal world of his own, he 
was obliged to separate himself from all existing 
conditions, as Beethoven did when composing 
his . symphonies. Composition for Hawthorne 
meant a severe mental strain. Those sentences, 

147 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

pellucid as a mountain spring, were not clari- 
fied without an effort. The faculty on which 
Hawthorne depended for this, as every artist 
does, was his imagination, and imagination is 
as easily disturbed as the electric needle. There 
is no fine art without sensitiveness. We see 
it in the portrait of Leonardo da Vinci, a man 
who could bend horseshoes in his hands; and 
Bismarck, who was also an artist in his way, 
confessed to the same mental disturbance from 
noise and general conversation, which Haw- 
thorne felt at Brook Farm. It was the mental 
sensitiveness of Carlyle and Bismarck which 
caused their insomnia, and much other suffering 
besides, 

George Ripley published an essay in the 
Dial, in which he heralded Fourier as the great 
man who was destined to regenerate society; 
but Fourier has passed away, and society con- 
tinues in its old course. What he left out of 
his calculations, or perhaps did not understand, 
was the principle of population. If food and 
raiment were as common as air and water, 
mankind would double its numbers every twelve 
or fifteen years, and the tendency to do so 
produces a pressure on poor human nature, 
which is almost like the scourge of a whip, 
driving it into all kinds of ways and means in 
order to obtain sufficient sustenance. Most 
notable among the methods thus employed is, 
and always has been, the division of labor, and 
it will be readily seen that a community like 
Brook Farm, where skilled labor, properly 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

speaking, was unknown, and all men were all 
things by turns, could never sustain so large a 
population relatively as a community where 
a strict division of industries existed. If a 
nation like France, for instance, where the popu- 
lation is nearly stationary, were to adopt Fourier's 
plan of social organization, it would prove 
a more severe restriction on human life than 
the wars of Napoleon. This is the reason 
why the attempt to plant a colony of Eng- 
lishmen in Tennessee failed so badly. There 
was a kind of division of labor among them, 
but it was purely a local and a foreign division 
and not adapted to the region about them. 
Ripley's method of allowing work to be counted 
by the hour instead of by the day or half-day, 
was of itself sufficient to prevent the enter- 
prise from being a financial success. Farming 
everywhere except on the Western prairies 
requires the closest thrift and economy, and all 
hands have to work hard. 

Neither could such an experiment prove a 
success from a moral point of view. Emerson 
said of it: "The women did not object so much 
to a common table as they did to a common 
nursery." In truth one might expect that a 
common nursery would finally result in a free 
fight. The tendency of all such institutions 
would be to destroy the sanctity of family life; 
and it would also include a tendency to the 
deterioration of manliness. One of the pro- 
fessed objects of the Brook Farm association 
was, to escape from the evils of the great world, 

149 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

— from the trickery of trade, the pedantry of 
colleges, the fiunkyism of ofhce, and the ar- 
rogant pretensions of wealth. Every honest 
man must feel a sympathy with this; there 
are times when we all feel that the struggle of 
life is an unequal conflict, from which it would 
be a permanent blessing to escape; yet he who 
turns his back upon it, is like a soldier who 
runs away from the battle-field. It is the con- 
flict with evil in the great world, and in our- 
selves, that constitutes virtue and develops 
character. It is good to learn the trickery of 
knaves and to expose it, to contend against 
pedantry and set a better example, to ad- 
minister offices with a modest impartiality, 
and to treat the gilded fool with a dignified 
contempt. But if the wings of the archangel 
are torn and soiled in his conflict with sin, 
does it not add to the honor of the victory? 
The man who left his wife and children, because 
he found that he could not live with them with- 
out occasionally losing his temper, committed 
a grievous wrong; and it is equally true that hy- 
pocrisy, the meanest of vices, may sometimes 
become a virtue. 

George P. Bradford, and a few others, en- 
joyed the life at Brook Farm, and would have 
liked to remain there longer. John S. D wight, 
the translator of Goethe's and Schiller's ballads,* 
said in his old age that if he were a young man, 
he would be only too glad to return there; and 
it is undeniable that such a place is suited to 

* One of the most musical translations in any language. 
150 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

a certain class of persons, both men and women. 
It cannot be repeated too often, however, that 
the true object of life is not happiness, but 
development. It is our special business on 
this planet, to improve the human race as our 
progenitors improved it, and developed it out 
of we know not what. By doing this, we also 
improve ourselves and happiness comes to us 
incidentally ; but if we pursue happiness directly, 
we soon become pleasure-seekers, and, like 
Faust, join company with Mephistopheles. 
Happiness comes to a philosopher, perhaps 
while he is picking berries ; to a judge, watching 
the approach of a thunder-storm ; to a merchant, 
teaching his boy to skate. It came to Napoleon 
listening to a prayer-bell, and to Hawthorne 
playing games with his children.* Happiness 
flies when we seek it, and steals upon us un- 
awares. 

George P. Bradford's account of Brook Farm 
in the "Memorial History of Boston "f is not 
so satisfactory as it might have been if he had 
given more specific details in regard to its man- 
agement. The general supposition has been 
that there was an annual deficit in the accounts 
of the association, which could only be met by 
Mr. Ripley himself, who ultimately lost the 
larger portion of his investment. It is difficult 
to imagine how such an experiment could end 
otherwise, and the final conflagration of the 
principal building, or "The Hive," as it was 

* Perhaps also in his kindliness to the terrapin. 
t Vol. iv. 330. 

151 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

called, served as a fitting consummation of the 
whole enterprise, — a truly dramatic climax. 
George Ripley went to New York to become 
literary editor of the Tribune, and was as 
distinguished there for the excellence of his 
reviews, and the elegance of his turnout in 
Central Park as he had been for the use of the 
spade and pitchfork at West Roxbury. 

Mr. Bradford returned to the instruction of 
young ladies in French and Latin; and John 
S. D wight became one of the civilizing forces 
of his time, by editing the Boston Journal of 
Music. None of them were the worse for their 
agrarian experiment. 

Even if the West Roxbury commune had 
proved a success for two or three generations, 
it would not have sufhced for a test of Fourier's 
theory for it would have been a republic within 
a republic, protected by the laws and govern- 
ment of the United States, without being sub- 
jected to the inconvenience of its own political 
machinery. The only fair trial for such a system 
would be to introduce it in some tract of country 
especially set apart and made independent for 
the purpose; but the chances are ten to one 
that a community organized in this manner 
would soon be driven into the same process 
of formation that other colonies have passed 
through under similar conditions. The true 
socialism is the present organization of society, 
and although it might be improved in detail, 
to revolutionize it would be dangerous. Yet 
the interest that has been aroused at various 

152 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

times by discussions of the Brook Farm pro- 
ject, shows how strong the undercurrent is 
setting against the present order of things; 
and this is my chief excuse for making such a 
long digression on the subject. 

During these last months of his bachelor- 
hood, Hawthorne appears to us somewhat in 
the light of a hibernating bear; for we hear 
nothing of him at that season at all. Between 
the last of October, 1841, and July, 1842, there 
are a large number of odd fancies, themes for 
romances, and the like, published from his 
diary, but no entries of a personal character. 
We hear incidentally that he was at Brook 
Farm during a portion of the spring, which is 
not surprising in view of the fact that Doctor 
Nathaniel Peabody had removed from Salem 
to Boston in the mean time. One conclusion 
Hawthorne had evidently arrived at during 
the winter months, and it was that his engage- 
ment to Miss Sophia Peabody ought to be termi- 
nated in the way all such affairs should be; viz., 
by matrimony. Their prospects in life were not 
brilliant, but it was difficult to foresee any ad- 
vantage in waiting longer, and there were decided 
disadvantages in doing so. It was accordingly 
agreed that they should be married at, or near, 
the summer solstice, the most suitable of all 
times for weddings — or engagements. On June 
20, he wrote to his fiancee from Salem, reminding 
her that within ten days they were to become 
man and wife, and added this significant re- 
flection : 

153 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

"Nothing can part us now; for God himself 
hath ordained that we shall be one. So nothing 
remains but to reconcile yourself to your destiny. 
Year by year we shall grow closer to each other ; 
and a thousand years hence, we shall be only 
in the honeymoon of our marriage. " 

Yet we find him writing again the tenderest 
and most graceful of love-letters on June 30.* 
The wedding has evidently been postponed; 
but two days later he is in Boston, and finds 
a pleasant recreation watching the boys sail 
their toy boats on the Frog Pond. The cere- 
mony finally was performed on July 9, and it 
was only the day previous that Hawthorne 
wrote the following letter, which is dated from 
54 Pinckney Street: 

"My Dear Sir: 

" Though personally a stranger to you, I am 
about to request of you the greatest favor which 
I can receive from any man. I am to be 
married to Miss Sophia Peabody to-morrow, and 
it is our mutual desire that you should perform 
the ceremony. Unless it should be decidedly a 
rainy day, a carriage will call for you at half- 
past eleven o'clock in the forenoon. 
" Very respectfully yours, 

" Nath. Hawthorne. 
" Rev. James F. Clarke, 
"Chestnut St." 

George S. Hillard lived on Pinckney Street, 
and Hawthorne may have been visiting him 

* J. Hawthorne, i. 241. 
154 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

at the moment. The Peabodys attended 
service at Mr. Clarke's church in Indiana Place, 
where Hawthorne may also have gone with 
them. He could not have made a more judicious 
choice; but, singularly enough, although Mr. 
Clarke became Elizabeth Peabody's life-long 
friend, and even went to Concord to lecture, 
he and Hawthorne never met again after this 
occasion. 

The ceremony was performed at the house of 
Sophia Peabody's father, No. 13 West Street, 
a building of which not one stone now rests 
upon another. It was a quiet family wedding 
(such as oftenest leads to future happiness), 
and most deeply impressive to those concerned 
in it. What must it have been to Hawthorne, 
who had known so much loneliness, and had 
waited so long for the comfort and sympathy 
which only a devoted wife can give? 

Time has drawn a veil over Hawthorne's 
honeymoon, but exactly four weeks after the 
wedding, we find him and his wife installed in 
the house at Concord, owned by the descend- 
ants of Reverend Dr. Ripley. It will be re- 
membered that Hawthorne had invested his 
only thousand dollars in the West Roxbury 
Utopia, whence it was no longer possible to 
recover it. He had, however, an unsubstan- 
tial Utopian sort of claim for it, against 
the Association, which he placed in the hands 
of George S. Hillard, and subsequent negotia- 
tion would seem to have resulted in giving 
Hawthorne a lease of the Ripley house, or 

155 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

"Old Manse," in return for it. It was already 
classic ground, for Emerson had occupied the 
house for a time and had written his first book 
there; and thither Hawthorne went to locate 
himself, determined to try once more if he 
could earn his living by his pen. 



156 



CHAPTER VIII 

Concord and the Old Manse: 1842-1845 

The Ripley house dates back to the times of 
Captain Daniel Hathorne, or even before him, 
and at Concord Fight the British left wing 
must have extended close to it. Old and un- 
painted as it is, it gives a distinct impression of 
refinement and good taste. Alone, I believe, 
among the Concord houses of former times, it is 
set back far enough from the country-road to 
have an avenue leading to it, lined with balm of 
Gilead trees, and guarded at the entrance by 
two tall granite posts somewhat like obelisks. 
On the further side of the house, Dr. Ripley had 
planted an apple orchard, which included some 
rare varieties, especially the blue pearmain, a 
dark-red autumn apple with a purple bloom 
upon it like the bloom upon the rye. A 
high rounded hill on the northeast partially 
shelters the house from the storms in that 
direction; and on the opposite side the river 
sweeps by in a magnificent curve, with broad 
meadows and rugged hills, leading up to the 
pale-blue outline of Mount Wachusett on the 
western horizon. The Musketequid or Concord 
River has not been praised too highly. Its 
clear, gently flowing current, margined by 
bulrushes and grassy banks, produces an effect 
of mental peacefulness, very different from the 
rushing turbulent waters and rocky banks of 

157 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

Maine and New Hampshire rivers. From what- 
ever point you approach the Old Manse, it be- 
comes the central object in a charming country 
scene, and it does not require the peculiar effect 
of mouldering walls to make it picturesque. 
It has stood there long, and may it long 
remain. 

There was formerly an Indian encampment 
on the same ground, — a well-chosen position 
both strategically and for its southern exposure. 
Old Mrs. Ripley had a large collection of stone 
arrow-heads, corn-mortars, and other relics of 
the aborigines, which she used to show to the 
young people who came to call on her grand- 
children; and there were among them pieces 
of a dark-bluish porphyry which she said was 
not to be found in Massachusetts, but must 
have been brought from northern New England. 
There was no reason why they should not have 
been. The Indians could go from Concord in 
their canoes to the White Mountains or the 
Maine lakes, and shoot the deer that came down 
to drink from the banks of the river; but the 
deer disappeared before the advance of the 
American farmer, and the Indians went with 
them. Now a grandson of Madam Ripley, in 
the bronze likeness of a minute-man of 1775, 
stands sentinel at "The Old North Bridge." 

Hawthorne ascended the hill opposite his 
house and wrote of the view from it: 

"The scenery of Concord, as I beheld it from 
the summit of the hill, has no very marked 
characteristics, but has a great deal of quiet 

158 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

beauty, in keeping with the river. There are 
broad and peaceful meadows, which, I think, 
are among the most satisfying objects in natural 
scenery. The heart reposes on them with a 
feeling that few things else can give, because 
almost all other objects are abrupt and clearly 
defined; but a meadow stretches out like a 
small infinity, yet with a secure homeliness 
which we do not find either in an expanse of 
water or air." 

The great cranberry meadows below the 
north bridge are sometimes a wonderful place 
in winter, when the river overflows its banks 
and they become a broad sheet of ice extending 
for miles. There one can have a little skating, 
an exercise of which Hawthorne was always 
fond. 

It was now, and not at Brook Farm, that 
he found his true Arcadia, and we have his 
wife's testimony that for the first eighteen 
months or more at the Old Manse, they were 
supremely happy. Every morning after break- 
fast he donned the blue frock, which he had 
worn at West Roxbury, and went to the wood- 
shed to saw and split wood for the daily con- 
sumption. After that he ascended to his study 
in the second story, where he wrote and pondered 
until dinner-time. It appears also that he 
sometimes assisted in washing the dishes — ^like 
a helpful mate. After dinner he usually walked 
to the post-office and to a reading-room in the 
centre of the town, where he looked over the 
Boston Post for half an hour. Later in the 

159 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

afternoon, he went rowing or fishing on the 
river, but his wife does not seem to have accom- 
panied him in these excursions, for Judge Keyes, 
who often met him in his boat, does not mention 
seeing her with him. In the evenings he read 
Shakespeare with Mrs. Hawthorne, commencing 
with the first volume, and going straight through 
to the end, "Titus Andronicus" and all, — and 
this must have occupied them a large portion 
of the winter. How can a man fail to be happy 
in such a mode of life! 

Hawthorne also went swimming in the river 
when the weather suited — rather exceptional 
in Concord for a middle-aged gentleman; but 
there were two very attractive bathing places 
near the Old Manse, one, a little above on the 
opposite side of the river, and the other, after- 
wards known as Simmons 's Landing, where 
there was a row of tall elms a short distance 
below the bridge. It is probable that Haw- 
thorne frequented the latter place, as being 
more remote from human habitations. He did 
not take to his gun again, although he could 
see the wild ducks in autumn, flying past his 
house. There were grouse and quail in the 
woods, and woodcock were to be found along 
the brook which ran through Emerson's pasture ; 
but perhaps Hawthorne had become too tender- 
hearted for field-sports. 

If Boston is the hub of the universe. Concord 
might be considered as the linchpin which 
holds it on. Its population was originally de- 
rived from Boston, and it must be admitted that 

i6o 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

it retains more Bostonian peculiarities than 
most other New England towns. It does not 
assimilate readily to the outside world. Nor is 
it surprising that few local visitors called upon 
the Hawthornes at the Old Manse. Emerson, 
always hospitable and public-spirited, went to 
call on them at once; and John Keyes, also 
a liberal-minded man, introduced Hawthorne 
at the reading-club. Margaret Fuller came and 
left a book for Hawthorne to read, which may 
have annoyed him more than anything she 
could have said. Elizabeth Hoar, a woman of 
exalted character, to whose judgment Emerson 
sometimes applied for a criticism of his verses, 
also came sometimes; but the Old Manse was 
nearly a mile away from Emerson's house, and 
also from what might be called the "court 
end" of the town. Hawthorne's nearest neigh- 
bor was a milk-farmer named George L. Prescott, 
afterward Colonel of the Thirty-second Massa- 
chusetts Volunteers. He not only brought 
them milk, but also occasionally a bouquet 
culled out of his own fine nature, as a tribute 
to genius. A slightly educated man, he was 
nevertheless one of Nature's gentlemen, and 
his death in Grant's advance on Richmond was 
a universal cause of mourning at a time when so 
many brave lives were lost. 

Hawthorne, as usual, was on the lookout 
for ghosts, and there could not have been a 
more suitable abode for those airy nothings, 
than the Old Manse. Mysterious sounds were 
heard in it repeatedly, especially in the night- 
II i6i 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

time, when the change of temperature produces 
a kind of settlement in the affairs of old wood- 
work. Under date of August 8 he writes in his 
diary : 

"We have seen no apparitions as yet, — ^but 
we hear strange noises, especially in the kitchen, 
and last night, while sitting in the parlor, we 
heard a thumping and pounding as of some- 
body at work in my study. Nay, if I mistake 
not (for I was half asleep), there was a sound 
as of some person crumpling paper in his hand 
in our very bedchamber. This must have 
been old Dr. Ripley with one of his sermons." 

Evidently he would have preferred seeing 
a ghost to receiving an honorary degree from 
Bowdoin College, and if the shade of Doctor 
Ripley had appeared to him in a dissolving 
light, like the Rontgen rays, Hawthorne would 
certainly have welcomed him as a kindred 
spirit and have expressed his pleasiure at the 
manifestation. 

Another idiosyncrasy of his, which seems 
like the idiom in a language, was his total in- 
difference to distinguished persons, simply as 
such. It was not that he considered all men 
on a level, for no one recognized more clearly 
the profound inequalities of human nature; 
but he was quite as likely to take an interest 
in a store clerk as in a famous writer. It is not 
necessary to suppose that a man is a parasite 
of fame because he goes to a President's re- 
ception, or wishes to meet a celebrated English 
lecturer. It is natural that we should desire to 

162 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

know how such people appear — their expression, 
their tone of voice, their general behavior; but 
Hawthorne did not care for this. At the time 
of which we write, Doctor Samuel G. Howe, the 
hero of Greek independence and the mental 
liberator of Laura Bridgman, was a more famous 
man than Emerson or Longfellow. He came to 
Concord with his brilliant wife, and they called 
at the Old Manse, where Mrs. Hawthorne re- 
ceived them very cordially, but they saw nothing 
of her husband, except a dark figure gliding 
through the entry with his hat over his eyes. 
One can only explain this by one of those fits 
of exceeding bashfulness that sometimes over- 
take supersensitive natures. School-girls just 
budding into womanhood often behave in a 
similar manner; and they are no more to be 
censured for it than Hawthorne, — to whom it 
may have caused moments of poignant self- 
reproach in his daily reflections. But Doctor 
Howe was the man of all men whom Haw- 
thorne ought to have known, and half an hour's 
conversation might have made them friends 
for life. 

George William Curtis was a remarkably 
brilliant young man, and gave even better 
promise for the future than he afterwards ful- 
filled, — as the editor of a weekly newspaper. 
He was at Brook Farm with Hawthorne, 
and afterward followed him to Concord, but is 
only referred to by Hawthorne once, and then 
in the briefest manner. Neither has Hawthorne 
much to say of Emerson; but Thoreau and 

163 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

Ellery Channing evidently attracted his at- 
tention, for he refers to them repeatedly in his 
diary, and he has left the one life-like portrait 
of Thoreau — ^better than a photograph — that 
now exists. He surveys them both in rather a 
critical manner, and takes note that Thoreau 
is the more substantial and original of the two; 
and he is also rather sceptical as to Channing's 
poetry, which Emerson valued at a high rate; 
yet he narrowly missed making a friend of 
Channing, with whom he afterward corre- 
sponded in a desultory way. 

We should not have known of Hawthorne's 
skating at Concord, but for Mrs. Hawthorne's 
"Memoirs," from which we learn that he fre- 
quently skated on the overflowed meadows, 
where the Lowell railway station now stands. 
She writes: "Wrapped in his cloak, he moved 
like a self -impelled Greek statue, stately and 
grave. " This is the manner in which we should 
imagine Hawthorne to have skated; but all 
others were a foil to her husband in the eyes 
of his wife.* He was evidently a fine skater, 
gliding over the ice in long sweeping curves. 
Emerson was also a dignified skater, but with 
a shorter stroke, and stopping occasionally 
to take breath, or look about him, as he did 
in his lectures. Thoreau came sometimes and 
performed rare glacial exploits, interesting to 
watch, but rather in the line of the professional 
acrobat. What a transfiguration of Hawthorne, 

* "Memories of Hawthorne," 52. 
164 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

to think of him skating alone amid the reflec- 
tions of a brilliant winter sunset ! 

When winter came Emerson arranged a 
course of evening receptions at his house for 
the intellectual people of Concord, with apples 
and gingerbread for refreshments. Curtis at- 
tended these, and has told us how Hawthorne 
always sat apart with an expression on his 
face like a distant thunder-cloud, saying little, 
and not only listening to but watching the 
others. Curtis noticed a certain external and 
internal resemblance in him to Webster, who 
was at times a thunderous-looking person — 
denoting, I suppose, the electric concentration 
in his cranium. Emerson also watched Haw- 
thorne, and the whole company felt his silent 
presence, and missed him greatly once or twice 
when he failed to come. Miss Elizabeth Hoar 
said: 

" The people about Emerson, Channing, 
Thoreau and the rest, echo his manner so much 
that it is a relief to him to meet a man like 
Hawthorne, on whom his own personality makes 
no impression." Neither did Mrs. Emerson 
echo her husband. 

The greater a man is, intellectually, the more 
distinct his difference from a general type and 
also from other men of genius. No two per- 
sonalities could be more unlike than Hawthorne 
and Emerson. 

It would seem to be part of the irony of Fate 
that they should have lived on the same street, 
and, have been obliged to meet and speak with 

i6s 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

each other. One was like sunshine, the other 
shadow. Emerson was transparent, and wished 
to be so; he had nothing to conceal from friend 
or enemy. Hawthorne was simply impenetra- 
ble. Emerson was cordial and moderately 
sympathetic. Hawthorne was reserved, but 
his sympathies were as profound as the human 
soul itself. To study human nature as Haw- 
thorne and Shakespeare did, and to make models 
of their acquaintances for works of fiction, 
Emerson would have considered a sin; while 
the evolution of sin and its effect on character 
was the principal study of Hawthorne's life. 
One was an optimist, and the other what is 
sometimes unjustly called a pessimist; that is, 
one who looks facts in the face and sees people 
as they are.* 

While Emerson's mind was essentially ana- 
lytic, Hawthorne's was synthetic, and, as Con- 
way says, he did not receive the world into 
his intellect, but into his heart, or soul, where 
it was mirrored in a magical completeness. 
The notion that the artist requires merely an 
observing eye is a superficial delusion. Obser- 
vation is worth little without reflection, and 
everything depends on the manner in which 
the observer deals with his facts. Emerson 
looked at life in order to penetrate it; Haw- 
thorne, in order to comprehend it, and assimi- 
late it to his own nature. The one talked 
heroism and the other lived it. Not but that 
Emerson's life was a stoical one, but Hawthorne's 

* "Sketches from Concord and Appledore. '. 
i66 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

was still more so, and only his wife and children 
knew what a heart there was in him. 

The world will never know what these two 
great men thought of one another. Hawthorne 
has left some fragmentary sentences concerning 
Emerson, such as, "that everlasting rejecter of 
all that is, and seeker for he knows not what, " 
and " Emerson the mystic, stretching his hand 
out of cloud-land in vain search for something 
real;" but he likes Emerson's ingenuous way 
of interrogating people, "as if every man had 
something to give him. " However, he makes 
no attempt at a general estimate; although 
this expression should also be remembered: 
"Clergymen, whose creed had become like an 
iron band about their brows, came to Emerson 
to obtain relief," — a sincere recognition of his 
spiritual influence. 

Several witnesses have testified that Emerson 
had no high opinion of Hawthorne's writing, — 
that he preferred Reade's "Christie Johnstone" 
to "The Scarlet Letter," but Emerson never 
manifested much interest in art, simply for its 
own sake. Like Bismarck, whom he also re- 
sembled in his enormous self-confidence, he 
cared little for anything that had not a practical 
value. He read Shakespeare and Goethe, not 
so much for the poetry as for the " fine thoughts " 
he found in them. George Bradford stated 
more than once that Emerson showed little 
interest in the pictorial art; and after walking 
through the sculpture-gallery of the Vatican, 
he remarked that the statues seemed to him 

167 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

like toys. His essay on Michel Angelo is little 
more than a catalogue of great achievements; 
he recognizes the moral impressiveness of the 
man, but not the value of his sublime concep- 
tions. Music, neither he nor Hawthorne cared 
for, for it belongs to emotional natures. 

In his "Society and Solitude" Emerson has 
drawn a picture of Hawthorne as the lover of a 
hermitical life; a picture only representing that 
side of his character, and developed after Emer- 
son's fashion to an artistic extreme. "Whilst 
he suffered at being seen where he was, he con- 
soled himself with the delicious thought of the in- 
conceivable number of places where he was not," 
and " He had a remorse running to despair, of 
his social gaucheries, and walked miles and miles 
to get the twitching out of his face, the starts 
and shrugs out of his shoulders."* 

There is a touch of arrogance in this, and it 
merely marks the difference between the modest 
author of the "Essays," and the proud, cen- 
sorious Emerson of 1870; but his love of ab- 
solute statements ofttimes led him into strange 
contradictions, and the injustice which results 
from judging our fellow-mortals by an inflex- 
ible standard was the final outcome of his 
optimism. Hawthorne was more charitable 
when he remarked that without Byron's faults 
we should not have had his virtues; but the 
truth lies between the two. 

There have been many instances of genius 
as sensitive as Hawthorne's in various branches 

* "Society and Solitude," 4, 5. 
168 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

of art: Shelley and Southey, Schubert and 
Chopin, Correggio and Corot. Southey not 
only blushed red but blushed blue — as if the 
life were going out of him; and in Chopin and 
Correggio at least we feel that they could not 
have been what they were without it. Napo- 
leon, whose nerves were like steel wires, suffered 
nevertheless from a peculiar kind of physical 
sensitiveness. He could not take medicines 
like other men, — a small dose had a terrible 
effect on him, — and it was much the same with 
respect to changes of food, climate, and the like. 

What Hawthorne required was sympathetic 
company. Do not we all require it ? The hyper- 
critical morality of the Emersonians, especially 
in Concord, could not have been favorable to 
his mental ease and comfort. How could a man 
in a happily married condition feel anything 
but repugnance to Thoreau's idea of marriage 
as a necessary evil; or Alcott's theory that 
eating animal food tended directly to the com- 
mission of crime ? 

On the first anniversary of Hawthorne's wed- 
ding, a tragical drama was enacted in Concord, 
in which he was called upon to perform a sub- 
ordinate part. One Miss Hunt, a school-teacher 
and the daughter of a Concord farmer, drowned 
herself in the river nearly opposite the place 
where Hawthorne was accustomed to bathe. 
The cause of her suicide has never been ade- 
quately explained, but as she was a transcenden- 
talist, or considered herself so, there were those 
who believed that in some occult way that was 

169 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

the occasion of it. However, as one of her 
sisters afterward followed her example, it would 
seem more likely to have come from the de- 
velopment of some family trait. She was seen 
walking upon the bank for a long time, before 
she took the final plunge; but the catastrophe 
was not discovered until near evening. 

Ellery Channing came with a man named 
Buttrick to borrow Hawthorne's boat for the 
search, and Hawthorne went with them. As 
it happened, they were the ones who found 
the corpse, and Hawthorne's account in his 
diary of its recovery is a terribly accurate de- 
scription, — softened down and poetized in the 
rewritten statement of "The Blithedale Ro- 
mance." There is in fact no description of a 
death in Homer or Shakespeare so appalling 
as this literal transcript of the veritable fact.* 
What concerns us here, however, are the com- 
ments he set down on the dolorous event. 
Concerning her appearance, he says: 

"If she could have foreseen while she stood, 
at five o'clock that morning on the bank of 
the river, how her maiden corpse would have 
looked eighteen hours afterwards, and how 
coarse men would strive with hand and foot 
to reduce it to a decent aspect, and all in vain, — 
it would surely have saved her from the deed." 

And again: 

" I suppose one friend would have saved 
her; but she died for want of sympathy — a 
severe penalty for having cultivated and refined 

* J. Hawthorne, i. 300. 
170 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

herself out of the sphere of her natural con- 
nections. " 

The first remark has often been misunder- 
stood. It is not the vanity of women, which 
is after all only a reflection (or the reflective 
consequence) of the admiration of man, which 
Hawthorne intends, but that delicacy of feeling 
which Nature requires of woman for her own 
protection; and he may not have been far 
wrong in supposing that if Miss Hunt had fore- 
seen the exact consequences of her fatal act 
she would not have committed it. Hawthorne's 
remark that her death was a consequence of 
having refined and cultivated herself beyond 
the reach of her relatives, seems a rather hard 
judgment. The latter often happens in American 
life, and although it commonly results in more 
or less family discord, are we to condemn it for 
that reason? If she died as Hawthorne imagines, 
from the lack of intellectual sympathy, we may 
well inquire if there was no one in Concord who 
might have given aid and encouragement to 
this young aspiring soul. 

' ' Take her up tenderly ; 
Lift her with care, 
Fashioned so slenderly, 
Young and so fair." 

And one is also tempted to add: 

"Alas! for the rarity 
Of Christian charity." 

Hawthorne's earthly paradise only endured 
until the autumn of 1843. When cool weather 

171 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

arrived, want and care came also. On November 
26 he wrote to George S. Hillard: 

' ' I wish at some leisure moment you would give yourself 
the trouble to call into Munroe's book-store and inquire 
about the state of my 'Twice-told Tales.' At the last 
accounts (now about a year since) the sales had not been 
enough to pay expenses; but it may be otherwise now — 
else I shall be forced to consider myself a writer for pos- 
terity; or at all events not for the present generation. 
Surely the book was puffed enough to meet with a sale. " * 

The interpretation of this is that Longfellow, 
Hillard and Bridge could appreciate Hawthorne's 
art, but the solid men of Boston (with some 
rare exceptions) could not. Even Webster 
preferred the grotesque art of Dickens to Haw- 
thorne's "wells of English unde filed. " Re- 
cently, one of the few surviving original copies 
of "Fanshawe" was sold at auction for six 
hundred dollars. Such is the difference between 
genius and celebrity. 

The trouble then and now is that wealthy 
Americans as a class feel no genuine interest in 
art or literature. They do not form a true aris- 
tocracy, but a plutocracy, and are for the most 
part very poorly educated. It was formerly 
the brag of the Winthrops and Otises that they 
could go through college and learn their lessons 
in the recitation-room. Now they go to row, 
and play foot-ball, and after they graduate, 
they leave the best portion of their lives behind 
them. Then if they have a talent for business 

* London Athenceum, August 10, 1889. 
172 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

they become absorbed in commercial affairs; 
or if not, they travel from one country to another, 
picking up a smattering of everything, but not 
resting long enough in any one place for their 
impressions to develop and bear good fruit. 
They are not like the aristocratic classes of 
England, France and Germany, who become 
cultivated men and women, and serve to main- 
tain a high standard of art and literature in 
those countries. 

The captain of a Cunard steamship, who 
owned quite a library, said in 1869: "I have 
bought some very interesting books in New 
York, especially by a writer named Hawthorne, 
but the type and paper are so poor that they 
are not worth binding." The reason why 
American publishers do not bring out books 
in such good form as foreign publishers — is 
that there is no demand for a first-rate article. 
Thus do the fine arts languish. When rich 
young Americans take as much interest in 
painting and sculpture as they do in foot-ball 
and yachting, we shall have our Vandycks and 
Murillos, — if nothing better. 

Discouraged with the ill success of " Fan- 
shawe, " Hawthorne had limited himself since 
then to the writing of short sketches, such as 
would be acceptable to the magazine editors, 
and now that he had formed this habit, he 
found it difficult to escape from it. He informs 
us in the preface to " Mosses from an Old Manse " 
that he had hoped a more serious and ex- 
tended plot would come to him on the banks 

173 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

of Concord River, but his imagination did not 
prove equal to the occasion. Most of the stories 
in "Mosses" must have been composed at 
Concord, but "Mrs. Bull-Frog" and "Monsieur 
du Miroir" must have been written previously, 
for he refers to them in a letter at Brook Farm. 
A few were published in the Democratic Review, 
and others may have been elsewhere; but the 
proceeds he derived from them would not have 
supported a day-laborer, and toward the close 
of his second year at the Manse, Hawthorne 
found himself running in debt for the neces- 
saries of life . He endured this with his usual stoical 
reticence, although there is nothing like debt 
to sicken a man's heart, — unless he be a decidedly 
light-minded man. Better fortune, however, 
was on its way to him in the shape of a political 

j revolution. 

^ On March 3, 1844, a daughter was born to 
the Hawthornes, whom they named Una, in 
spite of Hillard's objection that the name was 
too poetic or too fanciful for the prosaic prac- 
ticalities of real life. The name was an excellent 
one for a poet's daughter, and did not seem 
out of place in Arcadian Concord. Miss Una 
grew up into a graceful, fair and poetic young 
lady, — in all respects worthy of her name. 
She had an uncommonly fine figure, and, as 
often happens with first-born children, resem- 
bled her father much more than her mother. 
Her name also suggests the early influence 
of Spenser in her father's style and mode of 
thought. 

174 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

Soon after this fortunate event Hawthorne 
wrote a letter to Hillard, in which he said: 

"I find it a very sober and serious kind of happiness that 
springs from the birth of a child. It ought not come 
too early in a man's life — not till he has fully enjoyed his 
youth — for methinks the spirit can never be thoroughly 
gay and careless again, after this great event. We gain 
infinitely by the exchange ; but we do give up something 
nevertheless. As for myself who have been a trifier pre- 
posterously long, I find it necessary to come out of my 
cloud-region, and allow myself to be woven into the sombre 
texture of humanity." 

It seems then that his conscience sometimes 
reproached him, but this only proves that his 
moral nature was in a healthy normal condi- 
tion. There was a certain kind of indolence 
in him, a love of the dolce far niente, and an 
inclination to general inactivity which he may 
have inherited from his seafaring ancestors. 
Much better so, than to suffer from the nervous 
restlessness, which is the rule rather than the 
exception in New England life. 

In the same letter he mentions having for- 
warded a story to Graham's Magazine, which 
was accepted but not yet published after many 
months. He also anticipates an amelioration 
of his affairs from a Democratic victory in the 
fall elections. 

Meanwhile, Horatio Bridge had been travers- 
ing the high seas in the "Cyane," which was 
finally detailed to watch for slavers and to 
protect American commerce on the African 
coast. He had kept a journal of his various ex- 

175 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

periences and observations, which he sent to 
Hawthorne with a rather diffident interrogation 
as to whether it might be worth publishing. 
Hawthorne was decidedly of the opinion that 
it ought to be published, — in which we cordially 
agree with him, — and was well pleased to edit 
it for his friend ; and, although it has now shared 
the fate of most of the books of its class, it is 
excellent reading for those who chance to find 
a copy of it. Bridge was a good observer, 
and a candid writer. 

The election of 1844 was the most momentous 
that had yet taken place in American history. 
It decided the annexation of Texas, and the 
acquisition of California, with a coast-line on 
the Pacific Ocean nearly equal to that on the 
Atlantic; but it also brought with it an unjust 
war of greed and spoliation, and other evil 
consequences of which we are only now begin- 
ing to reach the end. The slaveholders and 
the Democratic leaders desired Texas in order 
to perpetuate their control of the government, 
and it was precisely through this measure that 
they lost it, — as happens so often in human 
affairs. It was the gold discoveries in Cali- 
fornia that upset their calculations. California 
would not come into the Union as a slave state. 
Enraged at this failure, the Southern politicians 
made a desperate attempt to recover lost ground, 
by seizing on the fertile prairies in the North- 
west; but there they came into conflict with 
the industrial classes of the North, who fought 
them on their own ground and abolished slavery. 

176 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

Never had public injustice been followed by 
so swift and terrible a retribution. 

In regard to the candidates of 1844, it was 
hardly possible to compare them. Polk pos- 
sessed the ability to preside over the House of 
Representatives, but he did not rise above this; 
while Clay could be fairly compared on some 
points with Washington himself, and united 
with this a persuasive eloquence second only 
to Webster's. He was practically defeated 
by fifteen or twenty thousand abolitionists 
who preferred to throw away their votes rather 
than to cast them for a slave-holder. 

Hawthorne, in the quiet seclusion of his 
country home, did not realize this danger to 
the Republic. He only knew that his friends 
were victorious, and was happy in the expec- 
tation of escaping from his debts, and of pro- 
viding more favorably for his little family. 



12 177 



CHAPTER IX 
"Mosses from an Old Manse" : 1845 

There is no evidence in the Hawthorne 
documents or publications to show exactly 
when the first edition of "Mosses from an Old 
Manse" made its appearance, and copies of 
it are now exceedingly rare, but we find the 
Hawthorne family in Salem reading the book 
in the autumn of 1845, so that it was probably 
brought out at that time and helped to main- 
tain its author during his last days at Con- 
cord. 

There must have been some magical influ- 
ence in the Old Manse or in its surrounding 
scenery, to have stimulated both Emerson's 
and Hawthorne's love of Nature to such a 
degree. Emerson's eye dilates as he looks upon 
the sunshine gilding the trunks of the balm of 
Gilead trees on his avenue; and Hawthorne 
dwells with equal delight on the luxuriant 
squash vines which spread over his vegetable 
garden. Discoursing on this he says: 

"Speaking of summer squashes, I must say 
a word of their beautiful and varied forms. 
They presented an endless diversity of urns 
and vases, shallow or deep, scalloped or plain, 
molded in patterns which a sculptor would 
do well to copy, since art has never invented 
anything more graceful. " 

178 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

And again: 

"A cabbage, too — especially the early Dutch 
cabbage, which swells to a monstrous circum- 
ference, until its ambitious heart often bursts 
asunder — is a matter to be proud of when we 
can claim a share with the earth and sky in 
producing it. " 

It would seem as if no one before Hawthorne 
had rightly observed these common vegetables, 
whose external appearance is always before 
our eyes. He not only humanizes whatever 
attracts his attention, but he looks through a 
refining medium of his own personality. He 
has the gift of Midas to bring back the Golden 
Age for us. Who besides Homer has been able 
to describe a chariot-race, and who but Haw- 
thorne could extract such poetry from a farmer's 
garden ? 

If we compare this introductory chapter 
with such earlier sketches as "The Vision at 
the Fountain" and "The Toll-Gatherer's Day," 
we recognize the progress that Hawthorne has 
made since the first volume of "Twice Told 
Tales. " We are no longer reminded of the 
plain unpainted house on Lake Sebago. His 
style is not only more graceful, but has acquired 
greater fulness of expression, and he is evidently 
working in a deeper and richer vein of thought. 
Purity of expression is still his polar star, and 
his writing is nowhere overloaded, but it has 
a warmer tone, a deeper perspective, and an 
atmospheric quality which painters call chi- 

179 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

aroscuro. He charms with pleasing fancies, 
while he penetrates to the soul. 

Hawthorne rarely repeats himself in details, 
and never in designs. Two of Dickens's most 
interesting novels, "Oliver Twist" and "David 
Copperfield, " are constructed on the same 
theme, but each of the studies in this collection 
has a distinct individuality which appeals to 
the reader after a fashion of its own. Each 
has its moral, or rather central, idea to which 
all its component parts are related, and teaches 
a lesson of its own, so unobtrusively that we 
become possessed of it almost unawares. Some 
are intensely, even tragically, serious; others 
so light and airy that they seem as if woven 
out of gossamer. 

There are a few, however, that do not har- 
monize with the general tone and character 
of the rest,— especially "Mrs. Bull-Frog," 
which Hawthorne himself confessed to having 
been an experiment, and which strangely 
enough is much more in the style of his son 
Julian. "Monsieur du Miroir" and "Sketches 
from Memory" are relics of his earlier writings; 
perhaps also "Feather-Top" and "The Pro- 
cession of Life." It would have been better 
perhaps if "Young Goodman Brown" had 
been used to light a fire at the Old Manse. 

"Monsieur du Miroir" is chiefly interesting 
as an example of Hawthorne's faculty for elab- 
orating the most simple subject until every 
possible phase of it has been exhausted. It 

i8o 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

may also throw some light scientifically on the 
origin of consciousness. We see ourselves 
reflected not only in the mirror, but on the 
blade of a knife, or a puddle in the road; and, 
if we look sharply enough, in the eyes of other 
men — even in the expression of their faces. 
In such manner does Nature force upon us a 
recognition of our various personalities — the 
nucleus of self-knowledge, and self-respect. 

Whittier once spoke of "Young Goodman 
Brown" as indicating a mental peculiarity in 
Hawthorne, which like the cuttle-fish rarely rises 
to the surface. The plot is cynical, and largely 
enigmatical. The very name of it (in the way 
Hawthorne develops the story) is a fearful 
satire on human nature. He may have intended 
this for an exposure of the inconsistency, and 
consequent hypocrisy, of Puritanism; but the 
name of Goodman Brown's wife is Faith, and 
this suggests that Brown may have been him- 
self intended for an incarnation of doubt, or 
disbelief carried to a logical extreme. What- 
ever may have been Hawthorne's design, the 
effect is decidedly unpleasant. 

Emerson talked in proverbs, and Hawthorne 
in parables. The finest sketches in this col- 
lection are parables. "The Birth Mark," 
"Rappacini's Daughter," "A Select Party," 
"Egotism," and "The Artist of the Beauti- 
ful." "The Celestial Railroad" is an allegory, 
a variation on "Pilgrim's Progress." 

"The Birth Mark" and "Rappacini's Daugh- 
ter" are like divergent lines, which origiate at an 

i8i 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

single point ; and that point is the radical vicious- 
ness of trying experiments on human beings. 
It is bad enough, although excusable, to vivi- 
sect dogs and rabbits; but why should we 
attempt the same course of procedure with 
those that are nearest and dearest to us? Such 
parables were not required in the time of Tiberius 
Caesar and men and women grew up in a natural, 
vigorous manner; but now we have become 
so scientific that we continually attempt to 
improve on Nature, — like the artist who left 
the rainbow out of his picture of Niagara be- 
cause its colors did not harmonize with the 
background. 

/ The line of divergence in "The Birth Mark" 
is indicated by its name. We all have our 
birth-marks, — traits of character, which may 
be temporarily suppressed, or relegated to the 
background, but which cannot be eradicated 
and are certain to reappear at unguarded mo- 
ments, or on exceptional occasions. Educa- 
tion and culture can do much to soften and 
temper the disposition, but the original ma- 
terial remains the same. The father who at- 
tempts to force his son into a mode of life for 
which Nature did not intend him, or the mother 
who quarrels with her daughter's friends, com- 
mits an error similar to that of Hawthorne's 
alchemist, who endeavors to remove the birth- 
mark from the otherwise beautiful face of his 
wife, but only succeeds in effecting this together 
with her death. The tragical termination of 
the alchemist's experiments, the pathetic yielding 

182 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

up of life by his sweet "Clytie, " is described 
with an impressive tenderness. She sinks to 
her last sleep without a murmur of reproach. 

"Rappacini's Daughter" might serve as a 
protest against bringing up children in an ex- 
ceptional and abnormal manner. I once knew 
an excellent lady, who, with the best possible 
intentions, brought up her daughter to be dif- 
ferent from all other girls. As a consequence, 
she was different, — could not assimilate herself 
to others. She had no admirers, or young friends 
of her own sex, for there were few points of 
contact between herself and general society. 
Her mother was her only friend. She aged 
rapidly and died early. Similarly, a boy brought 
up in a secluded condition of purity and ig- 
norance, finally developed into one of the most 
vicious of men. 

Hawthorne has prefigured this by a bright 
colored flower which sparkles like a gem, very 
attractive at a distance, but exhaling a deadly 
perfume. He may not have been aware that 
the opium poppy has so brilliant a flower that 
it can be seen at a distance from which all other 
flowers are invisible. The scene of his story 
is placed in Italy, — the land of beauty, but 
also the country of poisoners. Rappacini, 
an old botanist and necromancer, has trained 
up his daughter in the solitary companionship 
of this flower, from which she has acquired its 
peculiar properties. A handsome young student 
is induced to enter the garden, partly from 
curiosity and partly through the legerdemain 

183 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

of Rappacini. The student soon falls under 
the daughter's influence and finds himself being 
gradually poisoned. A watchful apothecary, 
who has penetrated the necromancer's secret, 
provides the young man with an antidote 
which saves him, but deprives the maiden of 
life. She crosses the barrier which separated 
her from a healthy existence, and the poison 
reacts upon her system and kills her. The old 
apothecary looks out from his window, and 
cries, " O Rappacini ! Is this the consummation 
of your experiment? " 

The underlying agreement between this 
story and "The Birth Mark" becomes apparent 
when we observe that the termination of one 
is simply a variation upon the last scene of the 
other. In one instance a beautiful daughter 
is sacrificed by her father, and in the other a 
lovely wife is victimized by her husband. There 
have been thousands, if not millions, of such 
cases. 

There is no other writer but Shakespeare 
who has portrayed the absolute devotion of a 
woman's love with such delicacy of feeling 
and depth of sympathy as Hawthorne. In 
the two stories we have just considered, and 
also in "The Bosom Serpent," this element 
serves, like the refrain of a Greek chorus, to 
give a sweet, penetrating undertone which 
reconciles us to much that would otherwise 
seem intolerable. The heroines in these pieces 
have such a close spiritual relationship that 
one suspects them of having been studied from 

184 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

the same model, and who could this have been 
so likely as Hawthorne's own wife.* 

The theme of "The Bosom Serpent" is a 
husband's jealousy; and it is the self-forgetftil 
devotion of his wife that finally cures his malady 
and relieves him of his unpleasant companion. 
The tale ends with one of those mystifying 
passages which Hawthorne weaves so skil- 
fully, so that it is difficult to determine from 
the text whether there was a real serpent secreted 
under the man's clothing, or only an imaginary 
one, — although we presume the latter. Francis 
of Verulam says, "the best fortune for a hus- 
band is for his wife to consider him wise, which 
she will never do if she find him jealous" ; 
and with good reason, for if he is unreasonably 
jealous, it shows a lack of confidence in her; 
but mutal confidence is the well-spring from 
which love flows, and if the well dries up, there 
is an end of it. 

"The Select Party" is quite a relief, after 
this tragical trilogy. It is easy to believe that 
Hawthorne imagined this dream of a summer 
evening, while watching the great cumulus 
clouds, tinted with rose and lavender like aerial 
snow-mountains, floating toward the horizon. 
Here were true castles in the air, which he 
could people with shapes according to his fancy; 
but he chose the most common abstract con- 
ceptions, such as, the Clerk of the Weather, 
the Beau Ideal, Mr. So-they-say, the Coming 

* Notice also the similar character of Sophia in J. Haw- 
thorne's "Bressant." 

185 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

Man, and other ubiquitous personages, whom 
we continually hear of, but never see. The 
Man of Fancy invites these and many others 
to a banquet in his cloud-castle, where they 
all converse and behave according to their 
special characters. A ripple of delicate humor, 
like the ripple made by a light summer breeze 
upon the calm surface of a lake, runs through 
the piece from the first sentence to the last; 
and the scene is brought to a close by the 
approach of a thunder-storm, which spreads 
consternation among these unsubstantial guests, 
much like that which takes place at a picnic 
under similar circumstances; and Hawthorne, 
with his customary mystification, leaves us in 
doubt as to whether they ever reached terra 
firma again. 

There is one proverbial character, however, 
whom Hawthorne has omitted from this ac- 
count; namely, Mr. Everybody. "What Every- 
body says, must be true;" but unfortunately 
Everybody's information is none of the best, 
and his judgment does not rise above his informa- 
tion. His self-confidence, however, is enormous. 
He understands law better than the lawyer, 
and medicine better than the physicians. He is 
never tired of settling the affairs of the country, 
and of proposing constitutional amendments. 
Is it not perfectly natural that Everybody 
should understand Everybody's business as 
well as or better than his own? He is continu- 
ally predicting future events, and if they fail 
to take place he predicts them again. He is 

i86 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

omnipresent, but if you seek him he is nowhere 
to be found, — which we may presume to be 
the reason why he did not appear at the enter- 
tainment given by the Man of Fancy. 

That which gives the elevated character to 
Raphael's faces — as in the "Sistine Madonna" 
and other paintings — is not their drawing, 
though that is always refined, but the expres- 
sion of the eyes, which are truly the windows of 
the soul. It was the same in Hawthorne's face, 
and may be observed in all good portraits of 
him. An immutable calmness overspread his 
features, but in and about his eyes there was a 
spring-like mirthf ulness ; while down in the 
shadowy depth of those luminous orbs was con- 
cealed the pathos that formed the undercurrent 
of his life. So it is that high comedy, as Plato 
long ago observed, lies very close to tragedy. 

A well-known French writer compares English 
humor, in a general way, to beer-drinking, and 
this is more particularly applicable to Dickens's 
characters. The very name of Mark Tapley 
suggests ale bottles. Thackeray's humor is 
of a more refined quality, but a trifle sharp 
and satirical. It is, however, pure and health- 
ful and might be compared to Rhine- wine, 
Hawthorne's humor at its best is more refined 
than Thackeray's, as well as of a more amiable 
quality, and reminds one (on Taine's principle) 
of those delicate Italian wines which have very 
little body, but a delightful bouquet. As a 
humorist, however, Hawthorne varies in dif- 
ferent times and places more than in any other 

187 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

respect. He adapts himself to his subject; is 
light and playful in "The Select Party" ; takes 
on a more serious vein in "The Celestial Rail- 
road"; in his resuscitation of Byron, in the letter 
from a lunatic called "P's Correspondence" 
he is simply sardonic; and "The Virtuoso's 
Collection" has all the effect, although he does 
not anywhere descend to low comedy, of a 
roaring farce. In "Mrs. Bull- Frog, " as the 
title intimates, he approaches closely to the 
grotesque. 

In "The Virtuoso's Collection" we have the 
humor of impossibility. Nothing is more com- 
mon than this, but Hawthorne gives it a peculiar 
value of his own. A procession of mythological 
objects, strange historical relics, and the odd 
creations of fiction passes before our eyes. 
The abruptness of their juxtaposition excites 
continuous laughter in us. It would be an ex- 
tremely phlegmatic person who could read it 
with a serious face. Don Quixote's Rosinante, 
Doctor Johnson's cat, Shelley's skylark, a live 
phoenix, Prospero's magic wand, the hard- 
ridden Pegasus, the dove which brought the 
olive branch, and many others appear in such 
rapid succession that the reader has no time to 
take breath, or to consider what will turn up 
next. Like an accomplished showman, Haw- 
thorne enlivens the performance here and there 
with original reflections on life, which are per- 
fectly dignified, but become humorous from 
contrast with their surroundings. In spite of 
its comical effect, the piece has a very genteel 

i88 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

air, for its material is taken from that general 
stock of information that passes current in 
cultivated families. The young man of fashion 
who had never heard of Elijah, or of Poe's 
"Raven," would not have understood it. 

In "The Hall of Fantasy," we catch some 
glimpses of Hawthorne's favorite authors: 

"The grand old countenance of Homer, the 
shrunken and decrepit form, but vivid face, 
of ^sop, the dark presence of Dante, the wild 
Ariosto, Rabelais's smile of deep-wrought mirth, 
the profound, pathetic humor of Cervantes, 
the all glorious Shakespeare, Spenser, meet 
guest for an allegoric structure, the severe 
divinity of Milton and Bunyan, molded of 
the homeliest clay, but instinct with celestial 
fire — were those that chiefly attracted my eye. 
Fielding, Richardson, and Scott occupied con- 
spicuous pedestals." 

He also adds Goethe and Swedenborg, and 
remarks of them : 

"Were ever two men of transcendent imagina- 
tion more unlike?" 

It is evident that Byron was not a favorite 
with Hawthorne. In addition to his severe 
treatment of that poet, in " P's Correspondence," 
he says in "Earth's Holocaust," where he im- 
agines the works of various authors to be con- 
sumed in a bonfire : 

" Speaking of the properties of flame, me- 
thought Shelley's poetry emitted a purer light 
than almost any other productions of his day, 
contrasting beautifully with the fitful and lurid 

189 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

gleams and gushes of black vapor that flashed 
and eddied from the volumes of Lord Byron." 

This seems like rather puritanical treatment. 
If there are false lines in Byron, there are quite 
as many weak lines in Shelley. If sincerity 
were to give out a pure flame, Byron would 
stand that test equal to any. His real fault is 
to be found in his somewhat glaring diction, 
like the voix blanc in singing, and in an occasional 
stroke of persiflage. This increases his attractive- 
ness to youthful minds, but to a nature like 
Hawthorne's anything of an exhibitory charac- 
ter must always be unpleasant. 

Emerson and Hawthorne only knew Goethe 
through the translations of Dwight, Carlyle 
and Margaret Fuller, and yet his poetry made 
a deeper impression on them than on Low^ell 
and Longfellow, who read it in the original. 
Hawthorne appears to have taken lessons in 
German while at Brook Farm, for we flnd him 
studying a German book at the Old Manse, 
with a grammar and lexicon; but, as he con- 
fesses in his diary, without making satisfactory 
progress. 

"The Artist of the Beautiful" is a Dantean 
allegory, and a poetic gem. A young watch- 
maker, imbued with a spirit above his calling, 
neglects the profits of his business in order to 
construct an artificial butterfly, — at once the 
type of useless beauty and the symbol of im- 
mortality, and he perseveres in spite of the dif- 
ficulties of the undertaking and the contempt- 
uous opposition of his acquaintances. He 

190 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

finally succeeds in making one which seems to 
be almost endowed with life, but only to be in- 
formed that it is no better than a toy, and that 
he has wasted his time on a thing which has no 
practical value. A child (who represents the 
thoughtlessness of the great world) crushes the 
exquisite piece of workmanship in his little 
hand; but the watch-maker does not repine at 
this, for he realizes that after having achieved 
the beautiful, in his own spirit, the outward 
symbol of it has comparatively little value. 
The Artist of the Beautiful is Hawthorne him- 
self; and in this exquisite fable he has not 
only unfolded the secret of all high art, but his 
own life-secret as well. 

Hawthorne and Transcendentalism 

The French and English scepticism of the 
eighteenth century, produced a reaction in the 
more contemplative German nature, which 
took the form of a strong assertion of spirit or 
mind as an entity in itself, and distinct from 
matter. This movement was more like a national 
impulse than the proselytism of a sect, but 
the individual in whom this spiritual impulse 
of the German people manifested itself at that 
time was Immanuel Kant. Without discredit- 
ing the revelations of Hebrew tradition, he 
taught the doctrine that instead of looking for 
evidence of a Supreme Being in the external 
world, we should seek him in our own hearts; 
that every man could find a revelation in his 
own conscience, — in the consciousness of good 

191 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

and evil, by which man improves his condition 
on earth; that the ideas of a Supreme Being, 
or of immortality and freedom of will, are in- 
herent in the human mind, and are not to be 
acquired from experience; but that, as the 
finite mind cannot comprehend the infinite, 
we cannot know God in the same sense that 
we know our own earthly fathers, or as Goethe 
afterwards expressed it, — 

' ' Who can say I know Him ; 
Who can say, I know Him not;" 

and that it is in this aspiration for the unat- 
tainable, in this reverence for absolute purity, 
wisdom and love, that the spirit of true religion 
consists. 

The new philosophy was named "Tran- 
scendentalism" by Kant's followers, because 
it included ideas which were beyond the range 
of experience. It became popular in Germany, 
as Platonism, to which it is closely related, be- 
came popular in ancient Greece. It has never 
been accepted in France, where scepticism still 
predominates, though we hear of it in Taine 
and a few other writers; but in Great Britain, 
although the English universities repudiated 
it. Transcendentalism became so influential that 
Gladstone has spoken of it, in his Romanes 
lecture, as the dominant philosophy of the 
nineteenth century. Every notable English 
writer of that period, with the exception of 
Macaulay, Mill, and Spencer, became largely 
imbued with it. In America its influence did 

192 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

not extend much beyond New England, but in 
that section at least its proselytes were numbered 
by thousands, and it effected an intellectual 
revolution which has since influenced the whole 
country. 

The Concord group of transcendentalists did 
not accept the teaching of Kant in its original 
purity; but mixed with it a number of other 
imported products, that in no way appertain 
to it. Thoreau was an American sansculotte, 
a believer in the natural man; Ripley was 
mainly a socialist; Margaret Fuller was one of 
the earliest leaders in woman's rights; Alcott 
was a Neo-Platonist, a vegetarian, and a non- 
resistant; while Emerson sympathized largely 
with Thoreau, and from his poetic exaltation 
of Nature was looked upon as a pantheist by 
those who were not accustomed to nice dis- 
criminations. Thus it happened that Tran- 
scendentalism came to be associated in the 
public mind with any exceptional mode or 
theory of life. Its best representatives in 
America, like Professor Hedge of Harvard, 
Reverend David A. Wasson and Doctor William 
T. Harris (so long Chief of the National Bureau 
of Education), were much abler men than 
Emerson's followers, but did not attract so 
much attention, simply because they lived 
according to the customs of good society. 

Sleepy Hollow, before it was converted into 
a cemetery, was one of the most attractive 
sylvan resorts in the environs of Concord. It 
was a sort of natural amphitheatre, a small 

13 193 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

oval plane, more than half surrounded by a 
low wooded ridge; a sheltered and sequestered 
spot, cool in summer, but also warm and sunny 
in spring, where the wild flowers bloomed and 
the birds sang earlier than in other places. 

There, on August 22, 1842, a notable meeting 
took place, between Hawthorne, Emerson, and 
Margaret Fuller, who came that afternoon to 
enjoy the inspiration of the place, without 
preconcerted agreement. Margaret Fuller was 
first on the ground, and Hawthorne found her 
seated on the hill-side — his gravestone now 
overlooks the spot — reading a book with a 
peculiar name, which he "did not understand, 
and could not afterward recollect." Such a 
description could only apply to Kant's " Critique 
of Pure Reason, ' ' the original fountain-head 
and gospel of Transcendentalism. 

It does not appear that Nathaniel Hawthorne 
ever studied "The Critique of Pure Reason." 
His mind was wholly of the artistic order, — 
the most perfect type of an artist, one might 
say, living at that time, — and a scientific analysis 
of the mental faculties would have been as 
distasteful to him as the dissection of a human 
body. History, biography, fiction, did not 
appear to him as a logical chain of cause and 
effect, but as a succession of pictures illustra- 
ting an ideal determination of the human race. 
He could not even look at a group of turkeys 
without seeing a dramatic situation in them. 
In addition to this, as a true artist, he was pos- 
sessed of a strong dislike for everything eccentric 

194 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

and abnormal; he wished for symmetry in all 
things, and above all in human actions; and 
those restless, unbalanced spirits, who attached 
themselves to the transcendental movement 
and the anti-slavery cause, were particularly 
objectionable to him. It has been rightly af- 
firmed that no revolutionary movement could 
be carried through without the support of that 
ill-regulated class of persons who are always 
seeking they know not what, and they have 
their value in the community, like the rest of 
us; but Hawthorne was not a revolutionary 
character, and to his mind they appeared like 
so many obstacles to the peaceable enjoyment 
of life. His motto was, "Live and let live." 
There are passages in his Concord diary in which 
he refers to the itinerant transcendentalist in no 
very sympathetic manner. 

His experience at Brook Farm may have 
helped to deepen this feeling. There is no 
necessary connection between such an idyllic- 
socialistic experiment and a belief in the direct 
perception of a great First Clause; but Brook. 
Farm was popularly supposed at that time to 
be an emanation of Transcendentalism, and is 
still largely so considered. He was wearied at 
Brook Farm by the philosophical discussions 
of George Ripley and his friends, and took to 
walking in the country lanes, where he could 
contemplate and philosophize in his own fashion, 
— which after all proved to be more fruitful 
than theirs. Having exchanged his interest 
in the West Roxbury Association for the Old 

195 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

Manse at Concord (truly a poetic bargain), he 
wrote the most keenly humorous of his 
shorter sketches, his "The Celestial Railroad," 
and in it represented the dismal cavern 
where Bunyan located the two great enemies 
of true religion, the Pope and the Pagan, as 
now occupied by a German giant, the Tran- 
scendentalist, who "makes it his business to 
seize upon honest travellers and fat them for 
his table with plentiful meals of smoke, mist, 
moonshine, raw potatoes, and sawdust." 

That Transcendentalism was largely associated 
in Hawthorne's mind with the unnecessary 
discomforts and hardships of his West Rox- 
bury life is evident from a remark which he 
lets fall in "The Virtuoso's Collection." The 
Virtuoso calls his attention to the seven-league 
boots of childhood mythology, and Hawthorne 
replies,"! could show you quite as curious a 
pair of cowhide boots at the transcendental 
community of Brook Farm." Yet there could 
have been no malice in his satire, for Mrs. Haw- 
thorne's two sisters, Mrs. Mann and Miss Pea- 
body, were both transcendentalists ; and so 
was Horace Mann himself, so far as we know 
definitely in regard to his metaphysical creed. 
Do not we all feel at times that the search for 
abstract truth is like a diet of sawdust or Scotch 
mist, — a "chimera buzzing in a vacuum" ? 

James Russell Lowell similarly attacked 
Emerson in his Class Day poem, and afterward 
became converted to Emerson's views through 
the influence of Maria White. It is possible 

196 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

that a similar change took place in Hawthorne's 
consciousness; although his consciousness was 
so profound and his nature so reticent that 
what happened in the depths of it was never 
indicated by more than a few bubbles at the 
surface. He was emphatically an idealist, as 
every truly great artist must be, and Tran- 
scendentalism was the local costume which 
ideality wore in Hawthorne's time. He was a 
philosopher after a way of his own, and his 
reflections on life and manners often have 
the highest value. It was inevitable that he 
should feel and assimilate something from the 
wave of German thought which was sweeping 
over England and America, and if he did this 
unconciously it was so much the better for the 
quality of his art. 

There are evidences of this even among his 
earliest sketches. In his account of " Sunday 
at Home" he says: "Time — where a man 
lives not — what is it but Eternity?" Does he 
not recognize in this condensed statement 
Kant's theorem that time is a mental condition, 
which only exists in man, and for man, and 
has no place in the external world? In fact, 
it only exists by divisions of time, and it is man 
who makes the divisions. The rising of the 
sun does not constitute time; for the sun is 
always rising — somewhere. The positivists and 
Herbert Spencer deny this, and argue to prove 
that time is an external entity — independent 
of man — like electricity; but Hawthorne did 
not agree with them. 

197 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

He evidently trusted the validity of his con- 
sciousness. In that exquisite pastoral, "The 
Vision at the Fountain, " he says: 

"We were aware of each other's presence, 
not by sight or sound or touch, but by an in- 
ward consciousness. Would it not be so among 
the dead?" 

You have probably heard of the German who 
attempted to evolve a camel out of his inner 
consciousness. That and similar jibes are com- 
mon among those persons of whom the Scriptures 
tell us that they are in the habit of straining 
at gnats; but Hawthorne believed conscious- 
ness to be a trustworthy guide. Why should 
he not? It was the consciousness of self that 
raised man above the level of the brute. This 
was the rock from which Moses struck forth 
the fountain of Everlasting life. 

Again, in "Fancy's Show-Box" we meet 
with the following: 

"Or, while none but crimes perpetrated are 
cognizable before an earthly tribunal, will 
guilty thoughts, — of which guilty deeds are 
no more than shadows, — will these draw down 
the full weight of a condemning sentence in 
the supreme court of eternity ? ' ' 

Is this not an induction from or corollary 
to the preceding? If it is not Kantian philos- 
ophy, it is certainly Goethean. Margaret Fuller 
was the first American critic, if not the first of 
all critics, to point out that Goethe in writing 
"Elective Affinities" designed to show that 
an evil thought may have consequences as 

198 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

serious and irremediable as an evil action — 
in addition to the well-known homily that evil 
thoughts lead to evil actions. In his " Hall of 
Fantasy" Hawthorne mentions Goethe and 
Swedenborg as two literary idols of the present 
time who may be expected to endure through 
all time. Emerson makes the same prediction 
in one of his poems. 

In "Rappacini's Daughter" Hawthorne says: 
" There is something truer and more real than 
what we can see with the eyes and touch with 
the finger." 

And in "The Select Party" he remarks: 
"To such beholders it was unreal because 
they lacked the imaginative faith. Had they 
been worthy to pass within its portals, they 
would have recognized the truth that the 
dominions which the spirit conquers for itself 
among unrealities become a thousand times 
more real than the earth whereon they stamp 
their feet, saying, 'This is solid and substan- 
tial! This may be called a fact! ' " 

The essence of Transcendentalism is the as- 
sertion of the indestructibility of spirit, that 
mind is more real than matter, and the unseen 
than the seen. "The visible has value only," 
says Carlyle, "when it is based on the invisible. " 
No writer of the nineteenth century affirms this 
more persistently than Hawthorne, and in none 
of his romances is the principle so conspicuous 
as in "The House of the Seven Gables." It is 
a sister's love which, like a cord stronger than 
steel, binds together the various incidents of 

199 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

the story, while the avaricious Judge Pyncheon, 
"with his landed estate, public honors, offices of 
trust and other solid ziwrealities, " has after 
all only succeeded in building a card castle for 
himself, which may be dissipated by a single 
breath. Holgrave, the daguerreotypist, who 
serves as a contrast to the factitious judge, is a 
genuine character, and may stand for a type 
of the young New England liberal of 1850: a 
freethinker, and so much of a transcendentalist 
that we suspect Hawthorne's model for him to 
have been one of the younger associates of the 
Brook Farm experiment. He is evidently 
studied from life, and Hawthorne says of him: 

"Altogether, in his culture and want of 
culture, in his crude, wild, and misty philosophy, 
and the practical experience that counteracted 
some of its tendencies; in his magnanimous 
zeal for man's welfare, and his recklessness of 
whatever the ages had established in man's 
behalf; in his faith, and in his infidelity; in 
what he had, and in what he lacked, the artist 
might fitly enough stand forth as the repre- 
sentative of many compeers in his native land. " 

This is a fairly sympathetic portrait, and it 
largely represents the class of young men who 
went to hear Emerson and supported Charles 
Sumner. In the story, Holgrave achieves the 
reward of a veracious nature by winning the 
heart of the purest and loveliest young woman 
in American fiction. 

If Hawthorne were still living he might ob- 
ject to the foregoing argument as a misrepre- 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

sentation; nor could he be blamed for this, 
for Ripley, Thoreau, Alcott and other like vision- 
ary spirits have so vitiated the significance 
of Transcendentalism that it ought now to be 
classed among words of doubtful and uncertain 
meaning. 

Students of German philosophy are now 
chiefly known as Kantists or Hegelians, and 
outside of the universities they are commonly 
classed as Emersonians. 



CHAPTER X 

From Concord to Lenox: 1845-1849 

In May, 1845, Paymaster Bridge found him- 
self again on the American coast. Meeting 
with FrankHn Pierce in Boston, they agreed to 
go to Concord together, and look into Haw- 
thorne's affairs. Soon after breakfast, Mrs. 
Hawthorne espied them coming through the 
gateway. She had never met Pierce, but she 
recognized Bridge's tall, elegant figure, when 
he waved his hat to her in the distance. Haw- 
thorne himself was sawing and splitting in the 
wood-shed, and thither she directed his friends 
— to his no slight astonishment when they ap- 
peared before him. Pierce had his arm across 
Hawthorne's broad shoulders when they re- 
appeared. There is one pleasure, indeed, which 
young people cannot know, and that is, the 
meeting of old friends. Mrs. Hawthorne was 
favorably impressed with Franklin Pierce's 
personality; while Horatio Bridge danced about 
and acted an impromptu pantomime, making 
up faces like an owl. They assured Hawthorne 
that something should be done to relieve his 
financial embarrassment.* 

All those whose attention Hawthorne at- 
tracted out of the rush and hurry of the world 

*J. Hawthorne, 281. 
202 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

were sure to become interested in his welfare. 
O'Sullivan, the editor of the Democratic Review, 
had already exerted himself in Hawthorne's 
behalf; but President Polk evidently did not 
know who Hawthorne was, so that O'Sullivan 
was obliged to have a puff inserted in his review 
for the President's better information. George 
Bancroft was now in the Cabinet, and could 
easily have obtained a lucrative post for Haw- 
thorne, but it is plain that Bancroft was not 
over-friendly to him and that Hawthorne was 
fully aware of this. Hawthorne had suggested 
the Salem postmastership, but when O'Sullivan 
mentioned this, Bancroft objected on the ground 
that the present incumbent was too good a 
man to be displaced, and proposed the con- 
sulates of Genoa and Marseilles, two deplorable 
positions and quite out of the question for Haw- 
thorne, in the condition of his family at that 
time. Perhaps it would have been better for 
him in a material sense, if he had accepted the 
invitation to dine with Margaret Fuller. 

The summer wore away, but nothing was 
acomplished; and late in the autumn Haw- 
thorne left the Old Manse to return to his Uncle 
Robert Manning's house in Salem, where he 
could always count on a warm welcome. There 
he spent the winter with his wife and child, 
until suddenly, in March, 1846, he was appointed 
Surveyor of the Port, or, as it is now more 
properly called. Collector of Customs. 

This was, in truth, worth waiting for. The 
salary was not large, but it was a dignified 

203 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

position and allowed Hawthorne sufficient lei- 
sure for other pursuits, — the leisure of the 
merchant or banker. Salem had already begun 
to lose its foreign trade, and for days together 
it sometimes happened that there was nothing 
to do. Hawthorne's chief business was to pre- 
vent the government from being cheated, 
either by the importers or by his own sub- 
ordinates; and it required a pretty sharp eye 
to do this. All the appointments, even to his 
own clerks, were made by outside politicians, 
and when a reduction of employees was necessary, 
Hawthorne consulted with the local Democratic 
Committee, and followed their advice. Such a 
method was not to the advantage of the public 
service, but it saved Hawthorne from an an- 
noying responsibility. His strictness and im- 
partiality, however, soon brought him into 
conflict with his more self-important subordi- 
nates, who were by no means accustomed to 
exactness in their dealings, and this finally 
produced a good deal of official unpleasantness; 
and the unfavorable reports which were after- 
ward circulated concerning Hawthorne's life 
during this period, probably originated in that 
quarter. 

All the poetry that Hawthorne could extract 
from his occupation at the Custom House is 
to be found in his preface to "The Scarlet 
Letter, ' ' but he withholds from us the prosaic 
side of it, — as he well might. At times he comes 
close to caricature, especially in his descrip- 
tions of "those venerable incumbents who 

204 



H 2 




I 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

hibernated during the winter season, and then 
crawled out during the warm days of spring 
to draw their pay and perform those pretended 
duties, for which they were engaged." There 
were formerly large numbers of moss-grown 
loafers in the government service, with whiskey- 
reddened noses and greasy old clothing, who 
would sun themselves on the door-steps, and 
tell anecdotes of General Jackson, Senator 
Benton, and other popular heroes, with whom 
they would intimate a good acquaintance at 
some remote period of their lives. If removed 
from office, they were quite as likely to turn 
up in a neighboring jail as in any other location. 
This is no satire, but serious truth ; and instances 
of it can be given. 

Hawthorne's life during the next three years 
was essentially domestic. In June, 1846, his 
son Julian was born — a remarkably vigorous 
baby — at Doctor Peabody's house in West 
Street, Boston; Mrs. Hawthorne wisely pre- 
ferring to be with her own mother during her con- 
finement.* With two small children on her 
hands, Mrs. Hawthorne had slight opportunity 
to enjoy general society, fashionable or other- 
wise. Rebecca Manning says, however: 

"Neither Hawthorne nor his wife could be 
said to be 'in society' in the technical sense. 

* At the age of thirty-five, JuUan resembled his father so 
closely that Nathaniel Hawthorne's old friends were some- 
times startled by him, as if they had seen an apparition. 
He was, however, of a stouter build, and his eyes were 
different. 

205 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

When the Peabody family lived in Salem, 
they were, I have been told, somewhat strait- 
ened pecuniarily. After Hawthorne's marriage, 
I think I remember hearing of his wife going 
to parties and dinners occasionally. Dr. Loring's 
wife was her cousin. Other friends were the 
Misses Howes, one of whom is now Mrs. Cabot 
of Boston. Mrs. Foote, who was a daughter 
of Judge White, was a friend, and I remember 
some Silsbees who were also her friends. Haw- 
thorne's wife knew how to cultivate her friends 
and make the most of them far better than 
either Hawthorne or his sisters did. I have 
been told that when Hawthorne was a young 
man, before his marriage, if he had chosen to 
enter Salem's 'first circle' he would have been 
welcome there." 

During this last sojourn in his native city 
Hawthorne was chosen on the committee for 
the lyceum lecture course, and proved instru- 
mental in bringing Webster to Salem, — where 
he had not been popular since the trial of the 
two Knapps, — to deliver an oration on the 
Constitution; of which Mrs. Hawthorne has 
given a graphic description in a letter to her 
mother on November 19, 1848: 

"The old Lion walked the stage with a sort 
of repressed rage, when he referred to those 
persons who cried out, ' Down with the Consti- 
tution ! ' ' Madmen ! Or most wicked if not 
mad!' said he with a glare of fire." 

A pure piece of acting. The national Consti- 
tution was not even endangered by the Southern 

206 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

rebellion, — much less by the small band of 
original abolitionists; and Webster was too 
sensible not to be aware of this. 

While Hawthorne was at the Salem Custom 
House, he made at least two valuable friends: 
Doctor George B. Loring, who had married a 
cousin of Mrs. Hawthorne, and William B. 
Pike, who occupied a subordinate position in 
the Custom House, but whom Hawthorne 
valued for moral and intellectual qualities of 
which he would seem to have been the first 
discoverer. They were not friends who would 
be likely to affect Hawthorne's political views, 
except to encourage him in the direction to 
which he had always tended. Four years earlier, 
Doctor Loring had been on cordial terms with 
Longfellow and Sumner, being a refined and 
intellectual sort of man, but like Hillard, had 
withdrawn from them on account of political 
differences. He was an able public speaker, 
and became a Democratic politician, until 1862, 
when he went over to the Republicans; but 
after that he was looked upon with a good deal 
of suspicion by both parties. The governor- 
ship was supposed to have been the object of 
his ambition, but he never could obtain the 
nomination. Late in life he was appointed 
Commissioner of Agriculture, a post for which 
he was eminently fitted, and finally went to 
Portugal as United States Minister. 

William B. Pike either lacked the opportunity 
or the necessary concentration to develop his 
genius in the larger world, but Hawthorne 

207 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

-continued to communicate with him irregularly 
until the close of his life. He invited him to 
Lenox when he resided there, and Mrs. Lathrop 
recollects seeing him at the Wayside in Concord, 
after Hawthorne's return from Europe. She 
discribes him as a "short, sturdy, phlegmatic 
and plebeian looking man," but with a gentle 
step and a finely modulated voice. It may have 
been as well for him that he never became 
distinguished.* 

The war with Mexico was now fairly afield, 
and Franklin Pierce, who left the United States 
Senate on account of his wife's health, was 
organizing a regiment of New Hampshire vol- 
unteers, as a "patriotic duty." Salem people 
thought differently, and party feeling there 
soon rose to the boiling-point. There is no 
other community where political excitement is 
so likely to become virulent as in a small city. 
In a country town, like Concord, every man 
feels the necessity for conciliating his neighbor, 
but the moneyed class in Salem was sufficient 
for its own purposes, and v/as opposed to the 
war in a solid body. The Whigs looked upon 
the invasion of Mexico as a piratical attempt of 
the Democratic leaders to secure the permanent 
ascendency of their party, and this was prob- 
ably the true reason for Franklin Pierce's join- 
ing it. In their eyes, Hawthorne was the repre- 
sentative of a corrupt adminstration, and they 
would have been more than human if they had 

* Mrs. Lathrop, "Memories of Hawthorne," 154. 
208 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

not wished him to feel this. The Salem gentry 
could not draw him into an argument very- 
well, but they could look daggers at him on 
the street and exhibit their coldness toward 
him when they went on business to the Custom 
House. It is evident that he was made to 
suffer in some such manner, and to a tender- 
hearted man with a clear conscience, it must 
have seemed unkind and unjust.* In his Custom 
House preface, Hawthorne compares the Whigs 
rather unfavorably with the Democrats, and 
this is not to be wondered at; but he should 
have remembered that it was his own party 
which first introduced the spoils-of-office system. 
The first use that Hawthorne made of his 
government salary was to cancel his obligations 
to the Concord tradespeople, and the next was 
to provide a home for his wife and mother. 
They first moved to i8 Chestnut Street, in 
June, 1846; and thence to a larger house, 14 
Mall Street, in September, 1847, in which "The 
Snow Image" was prepared for publication, 
and "The Scarlet Letter" was written. Haw- 
thorne's study or workshop was the front room 
in the third story, an apartment of some width 
but with a ceiling in direct contradiction to the 
elevated thoughts of the writer. There is an 

* When the engagement between the "Chesapeake" and 
the "Shannon" took place off Salem harbor in August, 
1 8 13, and Captain Lawrence was killed in the action, the 
anti-war sentiment ran so high that it was difficult to find 
a respectable mansion where his funeral would be per- 
mitted. 

14 209 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

ominous silence in the American Note-book 
between 1846 and 1850, which is rather increased 
than diminished by the pubUcation from his 
diary of a number of extracts concerning the 
children. The babies of geniuses do not differ 
essentially from those of other people, and it 
is not supposable that Hawthorne's reflections 
during this period were wholly confined to his 
own family. It is to be hoped that fuller in- 
formation will yet be given to the public con- 
cerning their affairs in Salem; for the truth 
deserves to be told. 

In January, 1846, Mrs. Hawthorne wrote to 
her mother: 

"No one, I think, has a right to break the will of a child, 
but God; and if the child is taught to submit to Him 
through love, all other submission will follow with heavenly 
effect upon the character. God never drives even the 
most desperate sinner, but only invites or suggests through 
the events of His providence." 

Nothing is more unfortunate than to break 
the will of a child, for all manliness and woman- 
liness is grounded in the will; but it is often 
necessary to control the desires and humors 
of children for their self-preservation. Haw- 
thorne himself was not troubled with such 
fancies. Alcott, who was his nearest neighbor 
at the Wayside, once remarked that there was 
only one will in the Hawthorne family, and 
that was Nathaniel's. His will was law and 
no one thought of disputing it. Yet what he 
writes concerning children is always sweet, 
tender, and beautiful, with the single excep- 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

tion of a criticism of his own daughter, which 
was published long after his death and could 
not have been intended for the public eye. 

The war with Mexico was wonderfully suc- 
cessful from a military point of view, but its 
political effects were equally confounding to 
the politicians who projected it. The Ameri- 
can people resemble the French, quite as much 
perhaps as they do the English, and the ad- 
miration of military glory is one of their Gallic 
traits. It happened that the two highest posi- 
tions in the army were both held by Whig 
generals, and the victory of Buena Vista car- 
ried Zachary Taylor into the White House, in 
spite of the opposition of Webster and Clay, 
as well as that of the Democrats and the Free 
Soilers. Polk, Bancroft, and Pierce had all 
contributed to the defeat of their own party. 
The war proved their political terminus to the 
two former; but, mirahile dictu, it became the 
cap of Fortunatus to Pierce and Hawthorne. 

This, however, could not have been fore- 
seen at the time, and the election of Taylor in No- 
vember, 1848, had a sufficiently chilling effect 
on the little family in Mall Street. Hawthorne 
entertained the hope that he might be spared 
in the general out-turning, as a distinguished 
writer and an inoffensive partisan, and this 
indicates how loath he was to relinquish his 
comfortable position. Let us place ourselves 
in his situation and we shall not wonder at it. 
He was now forty-five, with a wife and two 
children, and destitution was staring him in 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

the face. For ten years he had struggled 
bravely, and this was the net result of all his 
endeavors. Never had the future looked so 
gloomy to him. 

The railroad had superseded his Uncle Man- 
ning's business, as it had that of half the mer- 
cantile class in the city, and his father-in-law 
was in a somewhat similar predicament. At 
this time Elizabeth Peabody was keeping a 
small foreign book-store in a room of her father's 
house on West Street. One has to realize these 
conditions, in order to appreciate the mood in 
which Hawthorne's Custom House preface was 
written. 

There is one passage in it, however, that is 
always likely to be misunderstood. It is where 
he says : 

"I thought my own prospects of retaining office, to be 
better than those of my Democratic brethren ; but who can 
see an inch into futurity, beyond his nose? My own 
head was the first that fell! " 

It is clear that seme kind of an effort was 
made to prevent his removal, presumably by 
George S. Hillard, who was a Whig in good 
favor; but the conclusion which one would 
naturally draw from the above, that Hawthorne 
was turned out of office in a summary and 
ungracious manner, is not justified by the evi- 
dence. He was not relieved from duty until 
June 14, 1849; that is, he was given a hundred 
days of grace, which is much more than office- 
holders commonly are favored with, in such 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

cases. We may consider it morally certain 
that Hillard did what he could in Hawthorne's 
behalf. He was well acquainted w4th Webster, 
but unfortunately Webster had opposed the 
nomination of General Taylor, and was so im- 
prudent as to characterize it as a nomination 
not fit to be made. This was echoed all over 
the country, and left Webster without influ- 
ence at Washington. For the time being Seward 
was everything, and Webster was nothing. 

In a letter to Horace Mann, shortly after 
his removal, Hawthorne refers to two distinct 
calumnies which had been circulated con- 
cerning him in Salem, and only too widely 
credited. The most important of these — for 
it has seriously compromised a number of 
Salem gentlemen — was never explained until 
the publication of Mrs. Lathrop's "Memories 
of Hawthorne" in 1897; where we find a letter 
from Mrs. Hawthorne to her mother, dated 
June 10, 1849, ^'^^ containing the following 
passage : 

"Here is a pretty business, discovered in an unexpected 
manner to Mr. Hawthorne by a friendly and honorable 
Whig. Perhaps you know that the President said before 
he took the chair that he should make no removals ex- 
cept for dishonest}^ and unfaithfulness. It is very plain 
that neither of these charges could be brought against 
Mr. Hawthorne. Therefore a most base and incredible 
falsehood has been told — written down and signed and sent 
to the Cabinet in secret. This infamous paper certifies 
among other things (of which we have not heard) — that 
Mr. . Hawthorne has been in the habit of writing political 
articles in magazines and newspapers!" 

213 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

So it appears that the gutta-percha formula* 
of President Cleveland in regard to " offensive 
partisanship" was really invented forty years 
before his time, and had as much value in one 
case as in the other. It is possible that such 
a document as Mrs. Hawthorne describes was 
circulated, signed, and sent to Washington, to 
make the way easy for President Taylor's 
advisers, and if so it was a highly contemptible 
proceeding; but the statement rests wholly 
on the affirmation of a single witness, whose 
name has always been withheld, and even if it 
were true that Hawthorne had written political 
articles for Democratic papers the fact would 
have in no wise been injurious to his reputa- 
tion. The result must have been the same in 
any case. General Taylor was an honorable 
man, and no doubt intended to keep his word, 
as other Presidents have intended since; but 
what could even a brave general effect against 
the army of hungry office-seekers who w^ere 
besieging the White House, — a more formid- 
able army than the Mexicans whom he had 
defeated at Buena Vista? In all probability 
he knew nothing of Hawthorne and never 
heard of his case. 

The second calumny which Hawthorne refers 
to was decidedly second-rate, and closely re- 
sembles a servant's intrigue. The Department 
at Washington, in a temporary fit of economy, 

* By which eighty-eight per cent, of the classified service 
were removed. 

214 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

had requested him to discharge two of his super- 
visors. He did not like to take the men's bread 
away from them, and made a mild protest 
against the order. At the same time he con- 
sulted his chief clerk as to what it might be 
best to do, and they agreed upon suspending 
two of the supervisors who might suffer less 
from it than some others. As it happened, 
the Department considered Hawthorne's report 
favorably, and no suspension took place; but 
his clerk betrayed the secret to the two men 
concerned, who hated Hawthorne in conse- 
quence, and afterward circulated a report that 
he had threatened to discharge them unless 
they contributed to the Democratic campaign 
fund. This return of evil for good appears to 
have been a new experience for Hawthorne, 
but those who are much concerned in the affairs 
of the world soon become accustomed to it, 
and pay little attention to either the malice or 
the mendacity of mankind. 

Twenty years later one of Hawthorne's clerks, 
who had prudently shifted from the Democratic 
to the Republican ranks, held a small office in 
the Boston Navy Yard, and was much given to 
bragging of his intimacy with "Nat," and of 
the sprees they went on together; but the style 
and description of the man were sufficient to 
discredit his statements without further evi- 
dence. There were, however, several old ship- 
masters in the Salem Custom House who had 
seen Calcutta, Canton, and even a hurricane 
or two; men who had lived close to reality, 

215 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

with a vein of true heroism in them, moreover; 
and if Hawthorne preferred their conversation 
to that of the shipowners, who had spent 
their Hves in calculating the profits of commercial 
adventures, there are many among the well 
educated who would agree with him. He refers 
particularly to one aged inspector of imports, 
whose remarkable adventures by flood and 
field were an almost daily recreation to him; 
and if the narratives of this ancient mariner 
were somewhat mixed with romance, assuredly 
Hawthorne should have been the last person to 
complain of them on that account. 

At first he was wholly unnerved by his dis- 
missal. He returned to Mall Street and said 
to his wife: "I have lost my place. What 
shall we now do for bread?" But Mrs. Haw- 
thorne replied: "Never fear. You will now 
have leisure to finish your novel. Meanwhile, 
I will earn bread for us with my pencil and 
paint-brush."* Besides this, she brought for- 
ward two or three hundred dollars, which she 
had saved from his salary unbeknown to him; 
but who would not have been encouraged by 
such a brave wife? Fortunately her pencil and 
paint-brush were not put to the test; at least 
so far as we know. Already on June 8, her 
husband had written a long letter to Hillard, 
explaining the state of his affairs and contain- 
ing this pathetic appeal : 

"If you could do anything in the way of procuring me 
some stated Hterary employment, in connection with a news- 

* Mrs. George S. Hillard. 
216 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

paper, or as corrector of the press to some printing estab- 
lishment, etc., it could not come at a better time. Perhaps 
Epes Sargent, who is a friend of mine, would know of some- 
thing. I shall not stand upon my dignity; that must take 
care of itself. Perhaps there may be some subordinate 
office connected with the Boston Athenaeum (Literary). 
Do not think anything too humble to be mentioned 
to me."* 

There have been many tragical episodes in 
the history of literature, but since " Paradise 
Lost" was sold for five pounds and a contin- 
gent interest, there has been nothing more simply 
pathetic than this, — that an immortal writer 
should feel obliged to apply for a subordinate 
position in a counting-room, a description of 
work which nobody likes too well, and which 
to Hawthorne would have been little less than 
a death in life. " Do not think anything too 
humble to be mentioned to me" ! 

What Hillard attempted to do at this time 
is uncertain, but he was not the man to allow 
the shrine of genius to be converted into a gas- 
burner, if he could possibly prevent it. We 
may presume that he went to Salem and en- 
couraged Hawthorne in his amiable, half -elo- 
quent manner. But we do not hear of him 
again until the new year. Meanwhile Madam 
Hawthorne fell into her last illness and departed 
this life on July 3 1 ; a solemn event even to a 
hard-hearted son — how much more to such a 
man as she had brought into the world. Three 
days before her death, he writes in his diary of 
"her heart beating its funeral march," and 

* Conway, 113. 
217 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

diverts his mind from the awful finale by an 
accurate description of his two children playing 
a serio-comic game of doctor and patient, in 
the adjoining room. 

It was under such tragical conditions, well 
suited to the subject, that he continued his 
work oil "The Scarlet Letter," and his pain- 
fully contracted brow seemed to indicate that 
he suffered as much in imagination, as the 
characters in that romance are represented to 
have suffered. In addition he wrote "The 
Great Stone Face, " one of the most impres- 
sive of his shorter pieces (published, alas! in a 
Washington newspaper), and the sketch called 
"Main Street," both afterward included in the 
volume of "The Snow Image." On January 
17, 1850, he was greatly surprised to receive a 
letter from George S. Hillard with a large check 
in it, — more than half-way to a thousand dol- 
lars, — which the writer with all possible delicacy 
begged him to accept from a few of his Boston 
admirers. It was only from such a good friend 
as Hillard that Hawthorne would have accepted 
assistance in this form ; but he always considered 
it in the character of a loan, and afterward 
insisted on repaying it to the original sub- 
scribers, — Professor Ticknor, Judge Curtis, and 
others. Hillard also persuaded James T. Fields, 
the younger partner of Ticknor & Company, to 
take an interest in Hawthorne as an author 
who required to be encouraged, and perhaps 
coaxed a little, in order to bring out the best 
that was in him. 

218 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

Fields accordingly went to Salem soon after- 
ward, and has given an account of his first 
interview with Hawthorne in "Yesterdays with 
Authors," which seems rather melodramatic: 
"found him cowering over a stove," and al- 
together in a woe-begone condition. The main 
point of discussion between them, however, 
was whether "The Scarlet Letter" should be 
published separately or in conjunction with 
other subjects. Hawthorne feared that such a 
serious plot, continued with so little diversity 
of motive, would not be likely to produce a 
favorable impression unless it were leavened 
with material of a different kind. Fields, on 
the contrary, thought it better that the work 
should stand by itself, in solitary grandeur, 
and feared that it would only be dwarfed by 
any additions of a different kind. He pre- 
dicted a good sale for the book, and succeeded 
in disillusionizing Hawthorne from the notions 
he had acquired from the failure of " Fanshawe. " 

As it was late in the season. Fields would not 
even wait for the romance to be finished, but 
sent it to the press at once ; and on February 4, 
Hawthorne wrote to Horatio Bridge: 

' ' I finished my book only yesterday ; one end being in 
the press at Boston, while the other was in my head here 
at Salem; so that, as you see, the story is at least fourteen 
miles long. " 

The time of publication was a propitious one: 
the gold was flowing in from California, and 
every man and woman had a dollar to spend. 
The first edition of five thousand copies was 

219 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

taken up within a month, and after this Haw- 
thorne suffered no more financial embarrass- 
ments. The succeeding twelve years of his 
life were as prosperous and cheerful as his friends 
and readers could desire for him; although 
the sombre past still seemed to cast a ghostly 
shadow across his way, which even the sunshine 
of Italy could not entirely dissipate. 

"The Scarlet Letter" 

The germ of this romance is to be found in 
the tale of " Endicott and the Red Cross, " 
published in the Token in 1838, so that it must 
have been at least ten years sprouting and 
developing in Hawthorne's mind. In that 
story he gives a tragically comic description 
of the Puritan penitentiary, — in the public 
square, — ^where, among others, a good-looking 
young woman was exposed with a red letter 
A on her breast, which she had embroidered 
herself, so elegantly that it seemed as if it was 
rather intended for a badge of distinction than 
as a mark of infamy. Hawthorne did not 
conjure this up wholly out of his imagination, 
for in 1704 the General Court of Massachusetts 
Bay passed the following law, which he was no 
doubt aware of: 

"Convicted before the Justice of Assize, — both Man and 
Woman to be set on the Gallows an Hour with a Rope 
about their Necks and the other end cast over the Gal- 
lowses. And in the way from thence to the common 
Gaol, to he Scourged not exceeding Forty Stripes. And 
forever after to wear a Capital A of two inches long, of a 
contrary colour to their cloathes, sewed on their upper 

220 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

Garments, on the Back or Arm, in open view. And as often 
as they appear without it, openly to be Scourged, not ex- 
ceeding Fifteen Stripes." * 

The most diligent investigation, however, 
has failed to discover an instance in which 
punishment was inflicted under this law, so 
that we must conclude that Hawthorne in- 
vented that portion of his statement. In fact, 
nothing that Hawthorne published himself 
is to be considered of historical or biographical 
value. It is all fiction. He sported with his- 
torical facts and traditions, as poets and painters 
always have done, and the manuscript which 
he pretends to have discovered in his office at 
the Custom House, written by one of his pre- 
decessors there, is a piece of pure imagination, 
which serves to give additional credibility to 
his narrative. He knew well enough how 
large a portion of what is called history is fiction 
after all, and the extent to which professed 
historians deal in romance. He felt that he 
was justified so long as he did not depart from 
the truth of human nature. We may thank 
him that he did not dispel the illusion of his 
poetic imagery by the introduction of well- 
known historical characters. This is permis- 
sible in a certain class of novels, but its effect 
is always more or less prosaic. 

Our Puritan ancestors evidently did not 
realize the evil effects of their law against 
faithless wives, — its glaring indelicacy, and 

* Boston, Timothy Green, 1704. 
221 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

brutalizing influence on the minds of the young; 
but it was of a piece with their exclusion of 
church-music and other amenities of civili- 
zation. Was it through a natural attraction 
for the primeval granite that they landed on 
the New England coast? Their severe self- 
discipline was certainly well adapted to their 
situation, but, while it built up their social 
edifice on an enduring foundation, its tendency 
was to crush out the gentler and more sym- 
pathetic qualities in human nature. In no 
other community would the story of Hester 
Prynne acquire an equal cogency and signifi- 
cance. A German might, perhaps, understand 
it; but a Frenchman or an Italian not at all. 
The same subject has been treated in its 
most venial form by Shakespeare in "Measure 
for Measure," and in its most condemnable 
form in Goethe's " Faust. " " The Scarlet Letter " 
lies midway between these two. Hester Prynne 
has married a man of morose, vindictive dis- 
position, such as no woman could be happy 
with. He is, moreover, much older than her- 
self, and has gone off on a wild expedition in 
pursuit of objects which he evidently cares 
for, more than for his wife. She has not heard 
from him for over a year, and knows not whether 
he has deserted her, or if he is no longer living. 
She is alone in a strange wild country, and it 
is natural that she should seek counsel and 
encouragement from the young clergyman, who 
is worthy of her love, but, unfortunately, not 
a strong character. Lightning is not swifter 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

than the transition in our minds from good to 
evil, and in an unguarded moment he brings 
ruin upon himself, and a life-long penance on 
Hester Prynne. Hawthorne tells this story 
with such purity and delicacy of feeling that a 
maiden of sixteen can read it without offence. 

"The Scarlet Letter" is at once the most 
poetic and the most powerful of Hawthorne's 
larger works, much more powerful than " The 
Vicar of Wakefield," which has been accepted 
as the type of a romance in all languages. Gold- 
smith's tale will always be more popular than 
"The Scarlet Letter," owing to its blithesome 
spirit, its amusing incidents and bright effects 
of light and shade; but "The Scarlet Letter" 
strikes a more penetrating chord in the human 
breast, and adheres more closely to the truth 
of life. There are certain highly improbable 
circumstances woven in the tissue of "The 
Vicar of Wakefield, " which a prudent, reflec- 
tive reader finds it difficult to surmount. It 
is rather surprising that the Vicar should not 
have discovered the true social position of his 
friend Mr. Burchell, which must have been 
known to every farmer in the vicinity; and 
still more so that Mr. Burchell should have 
permitted the father of a young woman in whom 
he was deeply interested, to be carried to prison 
for debt without making an inquiry into his 
case. "The Scarlet Letter" is, as Hawthorne 
noticed, a continual variation on a single theme, 
and, that a decidedly solemn one; but its dif- 
ferent incidents form a dynamic sequence, 

223 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

leading onward to the final catastrophe, and if 
its progress is slow — the narrative extends 
over a period of seven years — this is as inevi- 
table as the march of Fate. From the first 
scene in the drama, we are lifted above our- 
selves, and sustained so by Hawthorne's genius, 
until the close. 

This sense of power arises from dealing with 
a subject which demanded the whole force 
and intensity of Hawthorne's nature. Hester 
Prynne herself is a strong character, and her 
errors are those of strength and independence 
rather than of weakness. She says to Mr. 
Dimmesdale that what they did "had a con- 
secration of its own, " and it is this belief which 
supports her under a weight of obloquy that 
would have crushed a more fragile spirit. 
She does not collapse into a pitiful nonentity, 
like Scott's Effie Deans, nor is she maddened 
to crime like George Eliot's "Hetty Sorrel";* 
but from the outset she forms definite resolu- 
tions, — first to rehabilitate her own character, 
and next to protect the partner of her shame. 
This last may seem to be a mistaken devotion, 
and contrary to his true interest, for the first 
step in the regeneration from sin is to acknowl- 
edge manfully the responsibility of it; but 
to give the repentance even the appearance of 
sincerity, the confession must be a voluntary 
one, and not be forced upon the delinquent 
person by external pressure. We cannot with- 

* A name apparently compounded from Hester Prynne 
and Schiller's Agnes Sorrel. 

224 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

hold our admiration for Hester's unswerving 
fidelity to this twofold purpose. We may con- 
demn her in our minds, but we cannot refuse 
her a measure of sympathy in our hearts. 

I believe this to be the explanation of her 
apparent inconsistency at the close of the 
book. Many of Hawthorne's commentators 
have been puzzled by the fact that Hester, 
after so many years of contrition, should advise 
Dimmesdale to fly to England, and even offered 
to accompany him. Women have not the 
same idea of law that men have. In their ideas 
of right and wrong they depend chiefly on 
their sense of purity; and it is very difficult 
to persuade a woman that she could be wrong 
in obeying the dictates of her heart. Hester 
perceives that her former lover is being tortured 
to death by the silent tyranny of Chillingworth ; 
the tide of affection so long restrained flows 
back into her soul; and her own reputation 
is as nothing compared with the life of the man 
she hopes to save. There is no other passage 
in American fiction so pathetic as that wood- 
land meeting, at which their mutual hopes of 
happiness blaze up like the momentary bright- 
ness of a dying flame. Hester's innocent child, 
however, representing the spirit of truthful- 
ness, is suddenly seized with an aversion to her 
father and refuses to join their company, — an 
unfavorable omen and dark presage of the 
minister's doom. 

Pearl's behavior, on this occasion, may be 
supposed to represent the author's own judg- 
15 225 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

ment. How far shall we agree with him? The 
past generation witnessed one of the noblest 
of women uniting herself, for life and death, to 
a man whom she could not marry on account 
of purely legal objections. Whether Hester's 
position in the last act of this drama is com- 
parable with that of Marian Evans every one 
must decide according to his or her conscience. 

Hawthorne certainly proves himself a good 
Puritan when he says, " And be the stern and 
sad truth spoken that the breach which guilt 
has once made into the human soul, is never in 
this mortal state repaired." The magnitude 
of the evil of course makes a difference ; but do 
we not all live in a continual state of sinning, 
and self-correction? That is the road to self- 
improvement, and those who adhere most closely 
to inflexible rules of conduct discover at length 
that the rules themselves have become an evil. 
Mankind has not yet fully decided as to what 
things are evil, and what are good; and neither 
Hawthorne nor the Puritan lawmakers would 
seem to have remembered Christ's admonition on 
a similar occasion: "Let him who is without 
sin among you, cast the first stone." 

A writer in the Andover Review, some twenty 
years ago, criticised the impersonation of 
Pearl as a fable — " a golden wreck. " He quoted 
Emerson to the effect that in all the ages that 
man has been upon the earth, no communica- 
tion has been established between him and the 
lower animals, and he affirmed that we know 
quite as little of the thoughts and motives of 

226 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

our own children. Both conclusions are wide of 
the mark. There is much more communication 
between man and the domestic animals than 
between animals of the same species. The 
understanding between an Arab and his horse 
is almost perfect, and so is that between a sports- 
man and his setters. Even the sluggish ox 
knows the word of command. Then what shall 
we say of the sympathetic relation between a 
mother and her child? Who can describe it — 
that clairvoyant sensibility, intangible, too swift 
for words? Who has depicted it, except Haw- 
thorne and Raphael? Pearl is like a pure spirit 
in "The Scarlet Letter," reconciling us to its 
gloomy scenes. She is like the sunshine in a 
dark forest, breaking through the tree-tops and 
dancing in our pathway. It is true that Haw- 
thorne has carried her clairvoyant insight to 
its furthest limits, but this is in accordance with 
the ideal character of his work. She has no 
rival except Goethe's Mignon. 

Hawthorne's method of developing his stories 
resembled closely that of the historical painter; 
and it was only in this way that he could pro- 
duce such vivid effects. He selected models 
for his principal characters and studied them 
as his work progressed. The original of Reverend 
Mr. Dimmesdale was quickly recognized in Salem 
as an amiable inoffensive person, of whom no one 
suspected any evil,— and that was, no doubt, 
the reason why Hawthorne selected him for his 
purpose. It was no discredit to the man him- 
self, although tongues were not wanting to 

227 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

blame Hawthorne for it. Who Hester may 
have been still remains a mystery; but it was 
evidently some one with whom the author was 
well acquainted, — perhaps his younger sister. 
So Rubens painted his own wife at one time an 
angel, and at another in the likeness of Herodias. 
It is still more probable that Pearl is a picture 
of Hawthorne's own daughter, who was of the 
right age for such a study, and whose sprightly, 
fitful, and impulsive actions correspond to 
those of Hester's child. This would also ex- 
plain why her father gave Una so much space 
in his Note -book. He may have noticed the 
antagonism between her and the Whig children 
of the neighborhood and have applied it to 
Pearl's case. It was also his custom, as ap- 
pears from his last unfinished work, to leave 
blank spaces in his manuscript while in the 
heat of composition, which, like a painter's 
background, were afterwards filled in with 
descriptions of scenery or some subsidiary 
narrative. 

The models of the novelist cannot be hired 
for the purpose, like those used by the painter 
or sculptor, but have to be studied when and 
where they can be found, for the least self- 
consciousness spoils the effect. Hawthorne 
in this only followed the example of the best 
authors and dramatists; and those who think 
that good fiction or dramatic poetry can be 
written wholly out of a man's or a woman's 
imagination, would do well to make the experi- 
ment themselves. 

228 



CHAPTER XI 

Pegasus is Free: 1850-1852 

Frederick W. Loring, that bright young 
poet who was so soon lost to us, once remarked : 
"Appreciation is to the artist what sunshine is 
to flowers. He cannot expand without it." 
The success of "The Scarlet Letter" proved 
that all Hawthorne's genius required was a 
little moderate encouragement, — not industry 
but opportunity. His pen, no longer slow and 
hesitating, moved freer and easier; the long 
pent-up flood of thoughts, emotions, and ex- 
periences had at length found an outlet; and 
the next three years were the most productive 
of his life. 

His first impulse, however, was to escape 
from Salem. Although his removal from ofiice 
had been a foregone conclusion, Hawthorne 
felt a certain degree of chagrin connected with 
it, and also imagined a certain amount of ani- 
mosity toward himself which made the place 
uncomfortable to him. He was informed that 
the old Sparhawk mansion, close to the Ports- 
mouth Navy Yard, was for sale or to rent, and 
the first of May, Hawthorne went thither to 
consider whether it would serve him for a home.* 
One would suppose that sedate old Portsmouth, 
with its courteous society and its dash of military 

* Lathrop, 225. 
229 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

life, would have suited Hawthorne even better 
than Concord; but he decided differently, and 
he returned to meet his family in Boston, where 
he made the acquaintance of Professor Ticknor, 
who introduced him at the Athen£Eum Library. 
He saw Hildreth at the Athenaeum working on 
his history of the United States; sat for his 
portrait to C. E. Thompson; went to the theatre; 
studied human nature in the smoking-room at 
Parker's; and relaxed himself generally. He 
must have stayed with his family at Doctor 
Peabody's on West Street, for he speaks of the 
incessant noise from Washington Street, and 
of looking out from the back windows on Temple 
Place. This locates the house very nearly. 

Two months later, July 5, 1850, he was at 
Lenox, in the Berkshire Mountains. Mrs. 
Caroline Sturgis Tappan, a brilliant Boston 
lady, equally poetic and sensible, owned a small 
red cottage there, which she was ready to lease 
to Hawthorne for a nominal rent. Lowell was 
going there on account of his wife, a delicate 
flower-like nature already beginning to droop. 
Doctor Holmes was going on account of Lowell, 
and perhaps with the expectation of seeing a 
rattlesnake; Fields was going on account of 
Lowell and Holmes. Mrs. Frances Kemble, 
already the most distinguished of Shakespearian 
readers, had a summer cottage there; and it 
was hoped that in such company Hawthorne 
would at last find the element to which he 
properly belonged. 

Unfortunately Hawthorne took to raising 
230 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

chickens, and that seems to have interested 
him more than anything else at Lenox. He fell 
in cordially with the plans of his friends; as- 
cended Monument Mountain, and went on 
other excursions with them; but it may be 
more than suspected that Lowell and Holmes 
did most of the talking. He assimilated himself 
more to Holmes perhaps than to any of the 
others. His meeting with Mrs. Kemble must 
have been like a collision of the centrifugal and 
centripetal forces; and for once, Hawthorne 
may be said to have met his antipodes. They 
could sincerely admire one another as we 
all do, in their respective spheres; but such a 
chasm as yawned between them in difference 
of temperament, character, and mode of living, 
could not have been bridged over by Captain 
Eads. 

Fannie Kemble, as she was universally called, 
had by long and sympathetic reading of Shake- 
speare transformed herself into a woman of the 
Elizabethan era, and could barely be said to be- 
long to the nineteenth century. Among other 
Elizabethan traits she had acquired an uncon- 
sciousness of self, together with an enormous self- 
confidence, and no idea of what people thought of 
her in polite society ever seems to have occurred 
to her. She had the heart of a woman, but 
mentally she was like a composite picture of 
Shakespeare's dramatis person<s, and that Emer- 
son should have spoken of her as "a great 
exaggerated creature" is not to be wondered at. 
In her own department she was marvellous. 

231 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

The severity of a mountain winter and the 
disagreeableness of its thawing out in spring, is 
atoned for by its summer, — that fine exhila- 
rating ether, which seems to bring elevated 
thoughts, by virtue of its own nature. Haw- 
thorne enjoyed this with his children and his 
chickens; and his wife enjoyed it with him. 
It is evident from her letters that she had not 
been so happy since their first year at the Old 
Manse. She had now an opportunity to in- 
dulge her love of artistic decoration, in adorn- 
ing the walls of their little red cottage, which 
has since unfortunately been destroyed by fire. 
She even began to give her daughter, who was 
only six years old, some instruction in drawing. 
The following extract concerning her husband, 
from a letter written to her mother, is charm- 
ingly significant of her state of mind at this time. 

" Beauty and the love of it, in him, are the 
true culmination of the good and true, and 
there is no beauty to him without these bases. 
He has perfect dominion over himself in every 
respect, so that to do the highest, wisest, love- 
liest thing is not the least effort to him, any 
more than it is to a baby to be innocent. It is 
his spontaneous act, and a baby is not more 
unconscious in its innocence. I never knew 
such loftiness, so simply borne. I have never 
known him to stoop from it in the most trivial 
household matter, any more than in a larger 
or more public one."* 

* J. Hawthorne, i. 373. 
232 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

Truly this gives us a beautiful insight into 
their home-life, and Hawthorne himself could 
not have written a more accurate eulogium. 
As intimated in the last chapter, we all make 
our way through life by correcting our daily 
trespasses, and Hawthorne was no exception 
to it; but as a mental analysis of this man at 
his best Mrs. Hawthorne's statement deserves a 
lasting recognition. 

"The House of the Seven Gables" 

It was not until early frosts and shortening 
days drove Hawthorne within doors that he 
again took up his writing, but who can tell how 
long he had been dreaming over his subject? 
Within five months, or by the last week of 
January, "The House of the Seven Gables" 
was ready for the press. There is no such house 
in Salem, exactly as he describes it; but an 
odd, antiquated-looking structure at No. 54 
Turner Street is supposed to have served him 
for the suggestion of it. The name is picturesque 
and well suited to introduce the reader to a 
homely suburban romance. 

The subject of the story goes back to the 
witchcraft period, and its active principle is a 
wizard's curse, which descends from one gener- 
ation to another, until it is finally removed by 
the marriage of a descendant of the injured 
party to a descendant of the guilty one. Woven 
together with this, there is an exposition of 
mesmerism, or, as it is now called, Christian 
Science, with its good and evil features. 

233 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

Each of Hawthorne's larger romances has a 
distinct style and quality of its own, apart 
from the fine individualized style of the author. 
Lathrop makes an excellent remark in regard 
to "The House of the Seven Gables," that the 
perfection of its art seems to stand between 
the reader and his subject. It resembles in this 
respect those Dutch paintings whose enamelled 
surface seems like a barrier to prevent the 
spectator from entering the scenes which they 
represent. It would be a mistake to consider 
this a fault, but one cannot help noticing the 
accuracy with which the subordinate details 
of the plot are elaborated. Is it possible that 
this is connected in a way with the rarefied 
atmosphere of Lenox, in which distant objects 
appear so sharply defined? 

"The House of the Seven Gables" might be 
symbolized by two paintings, in the first of 
which Hepzibah Pyncheon stands as the central 
figure, her face turned upward in a silent prayer 
for justice, her brother Clifford, with his head 
bowed helplessly, at one side, and the judge, 
with his chronic smile of satisfaction, behind 
Clifford; on the other side the keen-eyed Hol- 
grave would appear, sympathetically watching 
the progress of events, with Phoebe Pyncheon 
at his left hand. Old Uncle Banner and little 
Ned Higgins might fill in the background. 
In the second picture the stricken judge would 
be found in a large old-fashioned arm-chair, 
with Clifford and Hepzibah flying through a 
doorway to the right, while Phoebe and Hol- 

234 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

grave, the one happy and the other startled, 
enter on the left. 

Hepzibah, not Phoebe, is the true heroine of 
the romance, — or at least its central figure. 
Nowhere do we look more deeply into Haw- 
thorne's nature than through this sympathetic 
portrait of the cross-looking old maid, whose 
only inheritance is the House of the Seven 
Gables, in which she has lived many years, 
poor, solitary, friendless, with a disgrace upon 
her family, only sustained by the hope that 
she may yet be a help and comfort to her 
unfortunate brother. The jury before whom 
Clifford was tried believed him to be guilty, but 
his sister never would believe it. She lives for 
him and suffers with him. Hawthorne does not 
mitigate the unpleasantness of her appearance, 
but he instructs us that there is a divine spark 
glowing within. Very pitiful is her attempt to 
support the enfeebled brother by keeping a 
candy store; but noble and heroic is her resist- 
ance to the designs of her tyrannical cousin. 
It is her intrepidity that effects the crisis of 
the drama. 

Both Hepzibah and Clifford Pyncheon are 
examples of what fine portraiture Hawthorne 
could accomplish in exceptional or abnormal 
personalities, without ever descending to cari- 
cature. Judge Pyncheon has been criticised as 
being too much of a stage villain, but the same 
might be alleged of Shakespeare's (or Fletcher's) 
Richard III. What is he, in effect, but a Richard 
III. reduced to private life? Moreover, his habit 

235 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

of smiling is an individual trait which gives 
him a certain distinction of his own. Usually, 

Faces ever blandly smiling 

Are victims of their own beguiling. 

But Judge Pyncheon is a candidate for the 
governorship, and among the more mercenary 
class of politicians smiling often becomes a 
habit for the sake of popularity. Hawthorne 
might have added something to the judge's 
personale by representing him with a droll wit, 
like James Fiske, Jr., or some others that we 
have known, and he might have exposed more 
of his internal reflections; but he serves as a 
fair example of the hard, grasping, hypocritical 
type of Yankee. We see only one side of him, 
but there are men, and women too, who only 
have one side to their characters. 

It has been affirmed that Hawthorne made 
use of the Honorable Mr. Upham, the excellent 
historian of Salem witchcraft, as a model for 
Judge Pyncheon, and that this was done in 
revenge for Mr. Upham's inimical influence in 
regard to the Salem survey orship. It is im- 
possible, at this date, to disentangle the snarl 
of Hawthorne's political relations in regard to 
that office, but Upham had been a member of 
Congress and was perhaps as influential a Whig 
as any in the city. If Hawthorne was removed 
through his instrumentality, he performed our 
author a service, which neither of them could 
have realized at the time. Hawthorne, however, 
had a strong precedent in his favor in this 

236 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

instance; namely, Shakespeare's caricature of 
Sir Thomas Luce, as Justice Shallow in " The 
Merry Wives of Windsor"; but there is no 
reason why we should think better or worse 
of Mr. Upham on this account. 

Phoebe Pyncheon is an ideal character, the 
type of youthful New England w^omanhood, 
and the most charming of all Hawthorne's 
feminine creations. Protected by the shield of 
her own innocence, she leaves her country 
home from the same undefined impulse by 
which birds fly north in spring, and accomplishes 
her destiny where she might have least ex- 
pected to meet with it. She fills the whole 
book with her sunny brightness, and like many 
a young woman at her age she seems more 
like a spirit than a character. Her maidenly 
dignity repels analysis, and Hawthorne himself 
extends a wise deference to his own creation. 

The future of a great nation depends more 
on its young women than upon its laws or its 
statesmen. 

In regard to Holgrave, we have already said 
somewhat; but he is so lifelike that it seems 
as if he must have been studied from one of the 
younger members of the Brook Farm asso- 
ciation; perhaps the one of whom Emerson 
tells us,* that he spent his leisure hours in play- 
ing with the children, but had "so subtle a 
mind" that he was always consulted whenever 
important business was on foot. He is visible 
to our mental perspective as a rather slender 

* Lecture on Brook Farm. 
237 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

man, above medium height, with keen hazel 
eyes, a long nose, and long legs, and quick and 
lively in his movements. Phoebe has a more 
symmetrical figure, bluish-gray eyes, a com- 
plexion slightly browned from going without 
her hat, luxuriant chestnut-brown hair, always 
quiet and graceful. We have no doubt that 
Holgrave made a worthy husband for her, and 
that he occasionally took a hand in public 
affairs. 

Judge Pyncheon's duplicity is revealed to 
Holgrave by the medium of a daguerreotype. 
Men or women who are actors in real life should 
avoid being photographed, for the camera is 
pretty sure to penetrate their hypocrisy, and 
expose them to the world as they actually are. 
Every photograph album is to a certain extent 
a rogues' gallery, in which our faults, peculiari- 
ties, and perhaps vices are ruthlessly portrayed 
for the student of human nature. If a merchant 
were to have all his customers photographed, 
he would soon learn to distinguish those who 
were not much to be trusted. 

Notice also Hawthorne's eye for color. When 
Clifford, Hepzibah, and Phoebe are about to 
leave the seven-gabled house for the last time, 
"A plain, but handsome dark-green barouche" 
is drawn to the door. This is evidently his 
idea of a fine equipage ; and it happens that the 
background of Raphael's "Pope Julius" is of 
this same half-invisible green, and harmonizes 
so well with the Pope's figure that few realize 
its coloring. 

238 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

The plot of this picturesque story is the most 
ingenious of Hawthorne's life, but sufficiently 
probable throughout to answer the purpose of 
a romance, and it is the only one of Hawthorne's 
larger works which ends happily. It was brought 
out by Ticknor & Company at Easter 1850, — 
less than ten weeks after it was finished ; but we 
think of the House of the Seven Gables as 
standing empty, deserted and forlorn. 

In December Emerson had written to Haw- 
thorne concerning a new magazine in which he 
and Lowell were interested, and if Hawthorne 
would only give it his support its success could 
not be questioned. What Hawthorne replied 
to this invitation has never been discovered, 
but he had seen too many such periodicals go 
to wreck to feel much confidence in this enter- 
prise.* It is of more importance now that 
Emerson should have addressed him as " My 
dear Hawthorne," for such cordial friendliness 
was rare in "the poet of the pines." Mrs. 
Alcott once remarked that Emerson never 
spoke to her husband otherwise than as "Mr, 
Alcott," and it is far from likely that he ever 
spoke to Hawthorne differently from this. The 
conventionalities of letter-writing run back to a 
period when gentlemen addressed one another 
— and perhaps felt so too — in a more friendly 
manner than they do at present. 

Works of fiction and sentimental poetry 
stir up a class of readers which no other literature 

* J. Hawthorne, i. 381. 
239 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

seems to reach, and Hawthorne was soon in- 
undated with letters from unknown, and per- 
haps unknowable, admirers; but the most 
remarkable came from a man named Pynchon, 
who asserted that his grandfather had been a 
judge in Salem, and who was highly indignant 
at the use which Hawthorne had made of his 
name.* This shows how difficult it is for a 
writer of fiction or a biographer to escape giving 
offence. The lightning is sure to strike some- 
where. 

"The Snow Image" 

The question now was, what next? As it 
happened, the next important event in the 
Hawthorne family was the advent of their 
younger daughter, born like Agassiz, "in the 
lovely month of May, " and amid scenery as 
beautiful as the Pays de Vaud. Her father 
named her Rose, in defiance of Hillard's ob- 
jection to idyllic nomenclature; and as a child 
she seemed much like the spirit of that almost 
fabulous flower, the wild orange-rose. Ten 
years later, she was the most graceful girl in the 
Concord dancing-school, and resembled her 
elder sister so closely that they could not have 
been mistaken for anything but sisters. As 
she grew older she came more and more to 
resemble her mother. 

It was said that Hawthorne's "Wonder 
Book" originated in his telling free versions of 

* Conway, 135. 
240 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

the Greek myths to his children on winter 
evenings; and also that Horace Mann's boys, 
who were almost exactly of the same age as 
Una and Julian, participated in the entertain- 
ment. This may have happened the following 
winter at Newton, but could hardly have taken 
place at Lenox; and otherwise it is quite im- 
possible to identify all the children with botanical 
names in Hawthorne's introduction. Julian 
once remarked, at school, that he believed 
that he was the original of Squash-blossom, 
and that is as near as we can get to it. Some of 
them may have been as imaginary as the ingenious 
Mr. Eustace Bright, and might serve as well to 
represent one group of children as another. 

The book was written very rapidly, at an 
average of ten pages a day, and it has Haw- 
thorne's grace and purity of style, but it does not 
belong to the legitimate series of his works. 
It is an excellent book for the young, for they 
learn from it much that every one ought to 
know; but to mature minds the original fables, 
even in a translation, are more satisfactory 
than these Anglo-Saxon versions in the " Wonder 
Book." 

The collection of tales which passes by the 
name of "The Snow Image" is a much more 
serious work. "The Great Stone Face" and 
one or two others in the collection were pre- 
pared at Salem for the same volume as "The 
Scarlet Letter," but judiciously excluded by 
Mr. Fields. "The Snow Image" itself, however, 
is plainly derived from Hawthorne's own ex- 
i6 241 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

perience during the winter at Lenox. The 
common-sensible farmer and his poetic wife 
could not be mistaken for Mr. and Mrs. Haw- 
thorne, but the two sportive children are easily 
identified as Una and Julian. They are not 
only of the same age, but the "slight graceful 
girl" and "chubby red-cheeked boy" describes 
them exactly. The idea has been derived from 
the fable of the Greek sculptor Pygmalion whose 
statue came to life. That seems far enough 
off to be pleasantly credible, but to have such 
a transubstantiation take place in the front 
yard of a white-fenced American residence, is 
rather startling. Yet Hawthorne, with the 
help of the twilight, carries us through on the 
broad wings of his imagination, even to the 
melting of the little snow-sister before an air- 
tight stove in a close New England parlor. 
The moral that Hawthorne draws from this 
fable might be summed up in the old adage, 
"What is one man's meat is another man's 
poison" ; but it has a deeper significance, 
which the author does not seem to have per- 
ceived. The key-note of the fable is the same 
as that in Goethe's celebrated ballad, "The Erl 
King"; namely, that those things which 
children imagine, are as real to them as the 
facts of the external world. Nor do we altogether 
escape from this so long as we live. 

The origin of "The Great Stone Face" is 
readily traced to the profile face in the Fran- 
conia Mountains,— which has not only a strangely 
human appearance, but a grave dignified ex- 

242 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

pression, and, as a natural phenomenon, ranks 
next to Niagara Falls. The value of the fable, 
however, has perhaps been over-estimated. It 
is an old story in a modern garb, the saying so 
often repeated in the Book of Isaiah: "The 
last shall be first, and the first shall be last." 
The man Ernest, who is much in his ways like 
Hawthorne himself, spends his leisure in con- 
templating the Great Stone Face, and thus 
acquires a similar expression in his own. The 
wealthy merchant, the famous general, the 
great party leader, and the popular poet, all 
come upon the scene; but not one of them ap- 
pears to advantage before the tranquil counte- 
nance of the Great Stone Face. Finally, Ernest 
in his old age carries off the laurel; and in this 
Hawthorne hits the mark, for it is only through 
earnestness that man becomes immortal. Yet, 
one would suppose that constantly gazing at a 
face of stone, would give one a rather stony 
expression; as sculptors are liable to become 
statuesque from their occupation. 

Another Dantean allegory, and fully equal in 
power to any Canto in Dante's "Inferno," is 
the story of "Ethan Brandt," or "The Un- 
pardonable Sin." We have a clew to its origin 
in the statement that it was part of an un- 
finished romance; presumably commenced at 
Concord, but afterward discarded, owing to 
the author's dissatisfaction with his work — an 
illustration of Hawthorne's severe criticism of 
his own writing. The scene is laid at a lime- 
kiln in a dark and gloomy wood, where a lime- 

243 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

burner, far from human habitations, is watching 
his fires at night. To him Ethan Brandt ap- 
pears, a strange personage, long known for 
his quest after the unpardonable sin, and the 
solitude echoes back the gloominess of their 
conversation. Finally, the lime-burner fixes his 
fires for the night, rolls himself up in his blanket, 
and goes to sleep. When he awakes in the 
morning, the stranger is gone, but, on ascending 
the kiln to look at his caldron, he finds there 
the skeleton of a man, and between its ribs a 
heart of white marble. This is the unpardon- 
able sin, for which there is neither dispensation 
nor repentance. Ethan Brandt has committed 
suicide because life had become intolerable on 
such conditions. 

The summer of 185 1 in Lenox was by no 
means brilliant. It had not yet become the 
tip end of fashion, and Hawthorne's chief en- 
tertainment seems to have been the congrat- 
ulatory letters he received from distinguished 
people. Mrs. Frances Kemble wrote to him 
from England, announcing the success of his 
book there, and offering him the use of her 
cottage, a more palatial affair than Mrs. Tappan's, 
for the ensuing winter. Mrs. Hawthorne, how- 
ever, felt the distance between herself and her 
relatives, and perhaps they both felt it. Mrs. 
Hawthorne's sister Mary, now Mrs. Horace 
Mann, was living in West Newton, and the 
last of June Mrs. Hawthorne went to her for a 
long summer visit, taking her two daughters 
with her and leaving Julian in charge of his 

244 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

father, with whom it may be affirmed he was 
sufficiently safe. It rarely happens that a 
father and son are so much together as these 
two were, and they must have become very 
strongly attached. 

For older company he had Hermann Mel- 
ville, and G. P. R. James, whose society he 
may have found as interesting as that of more 
distinguished writers, and also Mr. Tappan, 
whom Hawthorne had learned to respect for 
his good sense and conciliatory disposition — a 
true peace-maker among men and women. 
Burill Curtis, the amateur brother of George W. 
Curtis, came to sketch the lake from Hawthorne's 
porch, and Doctor Holmes turned up once or 
twice. On July 24 Hawthorne wrote to his 
friend Pike at Salem : * 

"By the way, if I continue to prosper as heretofore in 
the Hterary line, I shall soon be in a condition to buy a 
place; and if you should hear of one, say worth from 
$1500 to $2000, I wish you would keep your eye on it for 
me. I should wish it to be on the seacoast, or at all events 
with easy access to the sea." 

The evident meaning of this is that the Haw- 
thornes had no desire to spend a second winter 
in the Berkshire hills. The world was large, 
but he knew not where to rest his head. Mrs. 
Hawthorne solved the problem on her return to 
Lenox, and it was decided to remove to West 
Newton when cold weather came. Thither 
they went November 21 in a driving storm of 

* Mrs. Lathrop, 151. 
24s 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

snow and sleet, — a parting salute from old 
Berkshire, — and reached Horace Mann's house 
the same evening. 

Nobody knows where the Hawthornes lived 
in Newton. The oldest survivors of both 
families were only five years of age at that time. 
Mrs. Hawthorne's father also resided in Newton 
that winter, and it is more than likely that they 
made their residence with him. Julian Haw- 
thorne has a distinct recollection of the long 
freight-trains with their clouds of black smoke 
blowing across his father's ground during the win- 
ter ; so they could not have lived very far from 
the Worcester railroad. Horace Mann's house is 
still standing, opposite a school-house on the 
road from the station, where a by-way meets 
it at an acute angle. The freight- trains and 
their anthracite smoke must have had a dis- 
turbing influence on Hawthorne's sensibility. 

The long-extended town of Newton, which 
is now a populous city, has much the best situa- 
tion of any of the Boston suburbs — on a moder- 
ately high range of hills, skirted by the Charles 
River, both healthful and picturesque. It is 
not as hot in summer nor so chilly at other 
seasons as Concord, and enjoys the advantage 
of a closer proximity to the city. Its society 
is, and always has been, more liberal and pro- 
gressive than Salem society in Hawthorne's 
time. Its citizens, mainly professional and 
mercantile men, are active, intelligent, and 
sensible, without being too fastidious. It was 
a healthful change for Hawthorne, and we are 

246 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

not surprised to find that his literary work was 
affected by it. Mrs. L. Maria Child lived there 
at the time, and so did Celia Thaxter, although 
not yet known to fame. The sound, penetrating 
intelligence of Horace Mann may have also had 
its salutary effect. 

"The Blithedale Romance" 

Hawthorne's "Wonder Book" and "The 
Snow Image ' ' were expressed to Ticknor & 
Company before leaving Lenox, and "The 
Blithedale Romance ' ' may also have been com- 
menced before that change of base. We only 
know, from his diary, that it was finished on the 
last day of April, 1852, and that he received 
the first proof-sheets of it two weeks later — 
which shows what expedition publishers can 
make, when they feel inclined. 

The name itself is somewhat satirical, for 
Hawthorne did not find the life at Brook Farm 
very blithesome, and in the story, with the ex- 
ception of the sylvan masquerade, there is much 
more rue than heart 's-ease, as commonly hap- 
pens in his stories. The tale ends tragically, and. 
without the gleam of distant happiness which 
lights up the last scenes of "The Scarlet Let- 
ter." It commences with a severe April snow- 
storm, an unfavorable omen ; the same in which 
Hawthorne set out to join the West Roxbury 
community. 

And yet the name is not without a serious 
meaning — a stern, sad moral significance. The 

247 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

earth is not naturally beautiful, for rank Nature 
ever runs to an excess. It is only beautiful 
when man controls and remodels it; but what 
man makes physically, he can unmake spiritually. 
We pass by a handsome estate, a grand arcade 
of elms over its avenue, spacious lawns, an 
elegant mansion, a luxurious flower-garden; 
but we are informed that happiness does not 
dwell there, that its owner is a misanthropic 
person, whose nature has been perverted by 
the selfishness of luxury; that there are no 
pleasant parties on the lawn, no happy wooing 
in that garden, no marriage festivals in those 
halls; and those possessions, which might have 
proved a blessing to generations yet unborn, 
are no better than a curse and a whited sepulchre. 
How many such instances could be named. 

It may have occurred to Hawthorne, that, if 
George Ripley, instead of following after a 
will-o'-the-wisp notion, which could only lead 
him into a bog, had used the means at his disposal 
to cultivate Brook Farm in a rational manner, 
and had made it a hospitable rendezvous for 
intellectual and progressive people, — an oasis 
of culture amid the wide waste of commercial- 
ism, — the place might well have been called 
Blithedale, and Mr. Ripley would have inaugu- 
rated a movement as rare as it was beneficial. 
It was only at a city like Boston, whose suburbs 
were pleasant and easily accessible, that such a 
plan could be carried out; and it was only a 
man of Mr. Ripley's scholarship and intellectual 
acumen who could have drawn together the 

248 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

requisite elements for it. It looks as if he missed 
an opportunity. 

We should avoid, however, confounding 
George Ripley with Hawthorne's Hollings- 
worth. It is quite possible that Hawthorne 
made use of certain traits in Ripley's character 
for this purpose, and also that he may have 
had some slight collision with him, such as he 
represents in "The Blithedale Romance;" but 
Ripley was an essentially veracious nature, who, 
as already remarked, carried out his experiment 
to its logical conclusion. HoUingsworth, on 
the contrary, proposes to pervert the trust 
confided to him, in order to establish at Blithe- 
dale an institution for the reformation of crim- 
inals, by which proceeding he would, after a 
fashion, become a criminal himself. At the 
same time, he plays fast and loose with the 
affections of Zenobia and Priscilla, who are 
both in love with him, designing to marry the 
one who would make the most favorable match 
for his purpose. It is through the junction of 
these two streams of evil that the catastrophe 
is brought about. 

Priscilla is evidently taken from the little 
seamstress whom Hawthorne mentions in his 
diary for October 9, 1841, and if she ever dis- 
covered this, she could hardly have been dis- 
pleased, for she is one of his most lovable 
creations; not so much of an ideal as Phoebe 
Pyncheon, for she is older and has already 
seen hard fortune. Her quiet, almost sub- 
missive v/ays at first excite pity rather than 

249 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

admiration, but at length we discover that there 
is a spirit within her, which shines through its 
earthly envelope, like the twinkling of a star. 

Zenobia has a larger nature and a more gifted 
mind than Priscilla, but also a more mixed 
character. Her name suggests a queenly presence 
and she is fully conscious of this. She does not 
acquire an equal influence over the other sex, 
for she is evidently in love with herself. She 
is described as handsome and attractive, but 
no sooner had " Blithedale " been published than 
people said, "Margaret Fuller"* — although 
Margaret Fuller was rather plain looking, and 
never joined the Brook Farm association. 

If this surmise be correct, it leads to a curious 
consideration. After painting a portrait of 
Zenobia in Chapter VI of "Blithedale," quite 
worthy of Rubens or Titian, he remarks, 
through the incognito of Miles Coverdale, in the 
first part of Chapter VII, that Priscilla reminds 
him of Margaret Fuller, and says this to Priscilla 
herself. Now it proves in the sequel that Pris- 
cilla and Zenobia are half-sisters, but it would 
be as difficult to imagine this from anything 
that is said in the story about them, as it is 
to understand how the shy, undemonstrative 
Priscilla could have reminded Coverdale of the 
brilliant and aggressive leader of the Tran- 
scendentalists. 

* The name of Zenobia is not very remotely significant 
of Margaret Fuller. Palmyra was the centre of Greek 
philosophy in Zenobia's time, and she also resembled 
Margaret in her tragical fate. 

250 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

The introduction of Margaret Fuller's name 
in that place comes abruptly on the reader, 
and momentarily dispels the illusion of the tale. 
Was Hawthorne conscious of the undercuri'ent 
of relationship, which he had already formulated 
in his mind, between Priscilla and Zenobia; or 
what is more likely, did he make the comparison 
in order to lead his readers away from any 
conceptions they might have formed in regard 
to the original of his heroine? If the latter 
supposition be true, he certainly was not very 
successful, for in either case it is evident that 
Margaret Fuller was prominent in his thoughts 
at the time he wrote those two chapters. 

Hawthorne's idea of her, however, should 
not be accepted as a finality. What Emerson 
and other friends have said concerning her 
should also be considered in order to obtain a 
just impression of a woman who combined 
more varied qualities than perhaps any other 
person of that time. Hawthorne says of Zenobia, 
that she was naturally a stump oratoress, — 
rather an awkward expression for him — and that 
"her mind was full of weeds. " Margaret Fuller 
was a natural orator, and her mind was full of 
many subjects in which Hawthorne could take 
little interest. She was a revolutionary character, 
a sort of female Garibaldi, who attacked old 
Puritan traditions with a two-edged sword; she 
won victories for liberalism, but left confusion 
behind her. Like all such characters, she made 
friends and enemies wherever she went. She 
sometimes gave offence by hasty impulsive 

251 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

utterances, but more frequently by keenly pene- 
trating arguments for the various causes which 
she espoused. Only a woman could deliver 
such telling shots. 

Lowell, who was fond of an argument himself, 
did not like her better than. Hawthorne did. 
There may be some truth in what he says in 
"The Fable for Critics," that the expression of 
her face seemed to suggest a life-long familiarity 
with the " infinite soul " ; but Margaret Fuller was 
sound at heart, and when she talked on those 
subjects which interested her, no one could be 
more self-forgetful or thoroughly in earnest. 
At times, she seemed like an inspired prophetess, 
and if she had lived two thousand years earlier, 
she might have been remembered as a sibyl.* 

"The Blithedale Romance" is written with a 
freer pen and less carefully than "The House of 
the Seven Gables," and is so much the better; 
for the author's state of mind in which he is 
writing will alwavs affect the reader more or 
less, and if the former feels under a slight con- 
straint the latter will also. A writer cannot be 
too exact in ascertaining the truth, — Macaulay 
to the contrary, — ^but he can trouble himself 
too much as to the expression of it. At the 
same time, "The Blithedale Romance" is the 
least poetic of Hawthorne's more serious works 
(which is the same as saying that it is more 
like a novel) , for the reason that • Hawthorne 
in this instance was closer to his subject. It is 

* See Appendix B. 
252 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

also more of a personal reminiscence, and less 
an effort of the imagination. He has included 
in it a number of descriptive passages taken 
from his Brook Farm diary; most notably the 
account of that sylvan masquerade, in which 
Coverdale finds his former associates engaged 
on his return to Blithedale in the autumn. 
Perhaps this is the reason why the book has so 
pleasant a flavor — a mellow after-thought of 
old associations. 

An air of mystery adds an enchantment to a 
work of art, whether in poetry, painting, or 
sculpture, — perhaps also in music; but there 
is a difference in kind between mystery and 
uncertainty. We do not like to be left half in 
the dark, in regard to things which we think we 
ought to know. There is a break in Hawthorne's 
chain of evidence against Hollingsworth and 
Zenobia, which might possibly have been filled 
to advantage. He would certainly have been 
non-suited, if his case had been carried into 
court. We are permitted to suppose that 
Zenobia, in order to clear her path of a successful 
rival, assists the mountebank, Westervelt, to 
entrap Priscilla, over whom he possesses a kind 
of hypnotic power, and to carry her off for the 
benefit of his mountebank exhibitions; but it 
remains a supposition and nothing more. We 
cannot but feel rejoiced, when Hollingsworth 
steps onto, the platform and releases Priscilla 
from the psychological net- work in which she is 
involved, and from which she has not sufficient 
will-power to free herself. He certainly deserves 

253 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

her hand and fortune; but, as to his condem- 
natory charges against Zenobia, which led 
directly to her suicide, — what could they have 
been? Was there nothing more than the trick 
she had attempted upon Priscilla? And if he 
accused her of that only, why should he suffer 
perpetual remorse on account of her death? 
Surely there was need of further explanation 
here, for the catastrophe and its consequences 
are out of all proportion to the apparent cause. 

His account of the recovery of Zenobia's 
body is a close transcript of the search for that 
unfortunate school-mistress, who drowned her- 
self in Concord River; and it is possible that, 
if Hawthorne had not been present on that 
occasion, the plot might have terminated in 
some other manner. 

The story closes without a ray of hope for 
Hollingsworth ; but the reader can perceive 
one in the generous devotion of his single- 
minded wife, even if Hawthorne did not. 



254 



CHAPTER XII 

The Liverpool Consulate: 1852-1854 

Why Hawthorne returned to Concord in 
1852 is more of a mystery than the suicide of 
Zenobia. Horace Mann also left Newton, to be 
President of Antioch College (and to die there 
in the cause of feminine education), in the 
autumn of that year; but this could hardly 
have been expected six months earlier. Haw- 
thorne was not very favorably situated at 
Newton, being rather too near the railroad ; 
but there was plenty of land on the top of the 
hill, where he might have built himself a house, 
and in the course of twelve years his property 
would have quadrupled in value. A poet will 
not be less of a poet, but more so, for under- 
standing the practical affairs of life. Or he 
might have removed to Cambridge, where 
Longfellow, always foremost in kind offices, 
would have been like a guardian angel to him, 
and where he could have made friends like 
Felton and Agassiz, who would have been 
much more in harmony with his political views. 
Ellery Channing was the only friend he appears 
to have retained in Concord, and it was not 
altogether a favorable place to bring up his 
children ; but the natural topography of Concord 
is unusually attractive, and it may be suspected 
that he was drawn thither more from the love 

25s 



v.. 

1' 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

of its pine solitudes and shimmering waters, 
than from any other motive. 

The house he purchased was nearly a mile 
from the centre of the town, and has ever since 
been known by the name of the Wayside. After 
Hawthorne's return from Europe in i860, he 
remodelled it somewhat, so that it has a more 
dignified aspect than when he first took pos- 
session of it. Alcott, who occupied it for some 
years previously, had adorned it with that 
species of rustic architecture in which he was 
so skilful. The house was half surrounded by 
a group of locust trees, much in fashion seventy 
years ago, and had been set so close against 
the hill-side, that a thicket of stunted pines and 
other wild growth rose above the roof like a 
crest. Bronson Alcott was his next-door 
neighbor, — almost too strong a contrast to him, 
— and Emerson's house was half a mile away; 
so that these three families formed a group by 
themselves in that portion of Concord. 

Hawthorne wrote a letter to his sister Eliza- 
beth, describing his new acquisition, and ex- 
pressing satisfaction in it. It was the first house 
that he had ever owned; and it is no small 
comfort to a man to live under his own roof, 
even though it be a humble one. At this time, 
however, he did not remain at the Wayside but 
a single year. After that, the house stood 
empty until the untimely death of Horace 
Mann, August 2, 1859, when Mrs. Mann 
came to Concord with her three boys, and 

256 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

occupied it until Hawthorne's return from 
Europe. 

It may as well be noticed here, that, during 
the eight years which Hawthorne spent alto- 
gether in Concord, he accomplished little 
literary work, and none of any real importance. 
It is impossible to account for this, except upon 
those pyschological conditions which sometimes 
affect delicately balanced minds. Whether the 
trouble was in the social atmosphere of the place, 
or in its climatic conditions, perhaps Hawthorne 
himself could not have decided; but there must 
have been a reason for it of some description. 
Julian Hawthorne states that his father had a 
plan at this time of writing another romance, 
of a more cheerful tone than "The Blithedale 
Romance," but the full current of his poetic 
activity was suddenly brought to a stand- 
still by an event that nobody would have 
dreamed of. 

Hawthorne had hardly established himself 
in his new abode, when Franklin Pierce was 
nominated for the presidency by the Democratic 
party. The whole country was astonished, 
for no such nomination had ever been made 
before, and it is probable that Pierce himself 
shared largely in this. The New Hampshire 
delegation had presented his name to the con- 
vention, in order to procure him distinction in 
his own State, but without expectation that he 
would become a serious candidate. Like the 
nomination of Hayes in 1876, it resulted from 
the jealousy of the great party leaders, — always 
17 257 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

an unfortunate position for a public man to be 
placed in. Theodore Parker said, "Any one is 
now in danger of becoming President." 

Hawthorne evidently felt this, for he wrote to 
Bridge, " I do not consider Pierce the brightest 
man in the country, for there are twenty more 
so." It would have been a mild statement if 
he had said two hundred. Pierce wanted him, 
of course, to write a campaign biography, and 
communicated with him to that effect; but 
Hawthorne disliked meddling in such matters, 
and at first declined to do it, although it was 
expected to be highly remunerative. Pierce, 
however, insisted, for Hawthorne's reputation 
was now much beyond his own, and he felt that 
a biography by so distinguished a writer would 
confer upon him great dignity in the eyes of 
the world; and as Hawthorne felt already much 
indebted to Pierce, he finally consented, — 
although a cheap spread-eagle affair would 
have served the purpose of his party quite as well. 
The book had to be written in haste, and just 
at the time when Hawthorne wished to take a 
little leisure. There were so few salient points 
in Pierce's life, that it was almost like making a 
biography out of nothing, and as for describing 
him as a hero, that was quite impossible. It 
was fortunate that he knew so much of Pierce's 
early life, and also that Pierce had kept a diary 
during the Mexican War, which formed a 
considerable portion of the biography. 

The book is worth reading, although written 
in this prosaic manner. Hawthorne states in the 

258 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

preface, frankly and manfully, that he objected 
to writing it, and this ought to be an excuse 
sufficient for his doing so — if excuse be needed. 
He does not attempt to represent his friend as 
a great statesman, but rather as a patriotic 
country gentleman, who is interested in public 
affairs, and who rises from one honorable position 
to another through a well-deserved popularity. 
This would seem to have been the truth ; and 
yet there was a decided inconsistency in Frank- 
lin Pierce's life, which Hawthorne represents 
plainly enough, although he makes no comment 
thereon. 

Franklin Pierce's father was captain of a 
militia company in 1798, when war was declared 
against the French Directory, for seizing and 
confiscating American merchant ships, con- 
trary to the law of nations. There could not 
have been a more just occasion for war, but 
Captain Pierce resigned his commission, because 
he considered it wrong to fight against a republic ; 
and Hawthorne approves of him for this. 
Franklin Pierce, however, resigned his seat in 
the Senate in 1842, on account of the interests 
of his family, alleging that "he would never 
enter public life again, unless the needs of his 
country imperatively demanded it," yet four 
years later he organized a regiment for the 
invasion of Mexico, — not only for making war 
upon a republic, but an unjust and indefensible 
war. General Grant's opinion ought to be 
conclusive on this latter point, for he belonged 
to the same political party as Pierce and Haw- 

259 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

thorne. Certainly, Pierce's services were not 
required for the defence of his native land. 

To do Hawthorne justice, there can be no 
doubt that in his heart he disapproved of this; 
for in one of his sketches written at the Old 
Manse, he speaks censoriously of "those ad- 
venturous spirits who leave their homes to 
emigrate to Texas." He evidently foresaw 
that trouble would arise in that direction, and 
perhaps Ellery Channing assisted him in pene- 
trating the true inwardness of the movement. 

It will be remembered that in Franklin 
Pierce's youth, he was exceptionally interested 
in military manoeuvres, and this may have been 
one of the inducements which led him into the 
Mexican War; but young men who are fond of 
holiday epaulets do not, for obvious reasons, 
make the best fighters. Pierce's military career 
was not a distinguished one; for, whether he 
was thrown from his horse in his first engage- 
ment, or, as the Whigs alleged, fell from it as 
soon as he came under fire, it is certain that he 
did not cover himself with glory, as the phrase 
was at that time. But we can believe Haw- 
thorne, when he tells us that Pierce took good 
charge of the troops under his command, and 
that he was kind and considerate to sick and 
wounded soldiers. That was in accordance 
with his natural character. 

It was impossible at that time to avoid the 
slavery question in dealing with political subjects, 
and what Hawthorne said on this point, in the life 
of General Pierce, attracted more attention than 

260 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

the book itself. Like Webster he considered 
slavery an evil, but he believed it to be one of 
those evils which the human race outgrows, 
by progress in civilization, — like the human 
sacrifices of the Gauls perhaps, — and he greatly 
deprecated the anti-slavery agitation, which 
only served to inflame men's minds and make 
them unreasonable. 

There were many sensible persons in the 
Northern States at that time, like Hawthorne 
and Hillard, who sincerely believed in this 
doctrine, but they do not seem to have been 
aware that there was a pro-slavery agitation at 
the South which antedated Garrison's Liberator 
and which was much more aggressive and 
vehement than the anti-slavery movement, 
because there were large pecuniary interests 
connected w4th it. The desperate grasping of 
the slave-holders for new territory, first in the 
Northwest and then in the Southwest, was not 
because they w^ere in any need of land, but 
because new slave States increased their political 
power. Horatio Bridge says, relatively to this 
subject: 

"No Northern man had better means for 
knowing the dangers impending, previous to 
the outbreak of the war, than had General 
Pierce. Intimately associated — as he was — 
with the strong men of the South, in his Cabinet 
and in Congress, he saw that the Southerners 
were determined, at all hazards, to defend 
their peculiar institution of slavery, which was 
imperilled by the abolitionists. " 

261 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

If Franklin Pierce was desirous of preserving 
the Union, why did he give Jefferson Davis a 
place in his Cabinet, and take him for his chief 
adviser ? Davis was already a pronounced 
secessionist, and had been defeated in his own 
State on that issue. In subserviency to Southern 
interests, no other Northern man ever went so 
far as Franklin Pierce, nor did Garrison himself 
accomplish so much toward the dissolution of 
the Union. He was an instance in real life of 
Goldsmith's "good-natured man," and the same 
qualities which assisted him to the position of 
President prevented his administration from 
being a success. Presidents ought to be made of 
firmer and sterner material. 

Hawthorne had barely finished with the proofs 
of this volume, when he received the saddest, 
most harrowing news that ever came to him. 
After her mother's death, in 1849, Louisa Haw- 
thorne had gone to live with her aunt, Mrs. 
John Dike; and in July, 1852, Mr. Dike went 
with her on an excursion to Saratoga and New 
York City. On the morning of July 27, they 
left Albany on the steamboat "Henry Clay," 
which, as is well known, never reached its destina- 
tion. When nearing Yonkers, a fire broke out 
near the engines, where the wood-work was 
saturated with oil, and instantly the centre of the 
vessel was in a bright blaze. Mr. Dike happened 
to be on the forward deck at the moment, but 
Louisa Hawthorne was in the ladies' cabin, and 
it was impossible to reach her. The captain of 
the Henry Clay immediately ran the vessel on 

262 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

shore, so that Mr. Dike and those who were with 
him escaped to land, but Louisa and more than 
seventy others, who threw themselves into the 
water, were drowned. It would seem to have 
been impossible to save her. 

The death of Hawthorne's mother may be said 
to have come in the course of Nature, and his 
mind was prepared for it; but Louisa had been 
the playmate of his childhood, and her death 
seemed as unnecessary as it was sharp and 
sudden. It happened almost on the third 
anniversary of his mother's death, and these VjVi 
were the only two occasions in Hawthorne's 
life, when the Dark Angel hovered about his 
door. 

Rebecca Manning says: 

" Louisa Hawthorne was a most delightful, 
lovable, interesting woman — not at all ' common- 
place, ' as has been stated. Her death was a 
great sorrow to all her friends. Her name 
was Maria Louisa, and she was often called 
Maria by her mother and sister and aunts." 

Depressed and unnerved, in the most trying 
season of the year, Hawthorne went in the 
latter part of August to visit Franklin Pierce at 
Concord, New Hampshire; but there a severe 
torrid wave came on, so that Pierce advised him 
to go at once to the Isles of Shoals, promising 
to follow in a few days, if his numerous engage- 
ments would permit him. 

The Isles of Shoals have the finest summer 
climate on the Atlantic Ocean; an atmosphere 
at once quieting and strengthening, and always 

263 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

at its best when it is hottest on the main-land. 
Hawthorne found a pair of friends ready-made 
there, and prepared to receive him, — Levi 
Thaxter, afterwards widely known as the 
apostle of Browning in America, and his wife, 
Celia, a poetess in the bud, only sixteen, but 
very bright, original, and pleasant. They 
admired Hawthorne above all living men, and 
his sudden advent on their barren island seemed, 
as Thaxter afterward expressed it, like a super- 
natural presence. They became good companions 
in the next two weeks; climbing the rocks, 
rowing from one island to another, — ^bald pieces 
of rock, like the summits of mountains rising 
above the surface of the sea, — visiting the 
light-house, the monument to Captain John 
Smith, Betty Moody's Cave, the graves of the 
Spanish sailors, the trap dikes of ancient lava, 
and much else. Every day Hawthorne wrote 
a minute account in his diary of his various 
proceedings there, including the observation of 
a live shark, which came into the cove by the 
hotel, a rare spectacle on that coast. General 
Pierce did not make his appearance, however, 
and on September 15, Hawthorne returned to 
his own home. 

The election of Pierce to the presidency was 
as remarkable as his nomination. In 1848, 
General Taylor, the victor of a single battle, 
but a man of little education, was nominated 
for the presidency over the heads of the finest 
orators and ablest statesmen in America, and was 
enthusiastically elected. General Scott, Franklin 

264 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

Pierce's opponent, defeated the Mexicans in 
four decisive battles, captured the capital of the 
country, and conducted one of the most skilful 
military expeditions of the past century. He 
was a man of rare administrative ability, and 
there is no substantial argument against his 
character. We have Grant's testimony that it 
was pleasant to serve under him. Yet he was 
overwhelmingly defeated at the polls by a 
militia general without distinction, military or 
civil. 

Hawthorne was naturally delighted at the 
result of the election; unfortunate as it after- 
wards proved for his country. He derived a 
threefold satisfaction from it, in the success of 
his friend, in the defeat of the Whigs, and in the 
happy prospects which it opened for himself. 
He could now return to the Salem Custom 
House in triumph, — as the wisest man might 
be tempted to do, — but he looked forward to 
something that would be more advantageous 
to his family. He had already written on 
October i8 to Horatio Bridge: 

"Before undertaking it [the biography] I made an in- 
ward resolution, that I should accept no office from him; 
but, to say the truth, I doubt whether it would not be 
rather folly than heroism to adhere to this purpose, in case 
he should offer me anything particularly good. We shall 
see. A foreign mission I could not afford to take. The 
consulship at Liverpool, I might." * 

We may conclude from this, that Pierce had 
already intimated the Liverpool consulate, which 

* Bridge, 130. 
265 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

at that time was supposed to be worth twenty- 
five thousand dollars a year in fees. It was an 
excellent plan for the President of the United 
States to have such a gift at his disposal, to 
reward some individual like Hawthorne, to 
whom the whole nation was indebted to an 
extent that could never be repaid; but it is a 
question whether it would not have been as well, 
in this particular case., for Hawthorne to have 
remained in his own country. If he could have 
written five or six romances more, this would 
have secured him a good competency, and 
would have assured a sufficient income for his 
family after his death. As it happened, the 
Liverpool consulate did not prove so profitable 
as was anticipated. 

With such "great expectations" before him, 
Hawthorne could do no serious work that winter, 
so he occupied himself leisurely enough, with 
writing a sequel to his " Wonder Book," which he 
called "Tanglewood Tales," apparently after the 
thicket which surmounted the hill above his 
residence. This was finished early in March, and 
given to Ticknor & Company to publish when 
they saw fit. As it is a book intended for children, 
the consideration of it need not detain us. 

Early in April, 1853, Hawthorne was appointed 
and confirmed to the Liverpool consulate, and 
on the 14th he went to Washington, as he tells 
us, for the first time, to thank the President in 
person. Otherwise he has divulged nothing 
concerning this journey, except that he was 
introduced to a larger number of persons than he 

266 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

could remember the names or faces of, and 
received ten times as many invitations as he 
could accept. If Charles V, honored himself 
with posterity by picking up the paint-brush 
which Titian had dropped on the floor, President 
Pierce might have done himself equal credit 
by making Hawthorne his guest at the White 
House; but if he did not go so far as this, it 
cannot be doubted that he treated Hawthorne 
handsomely. There were giants at Washington 
in those days. Webster and Clay were gone, 
but Seward was the Charles Fox and Sumner the 
Edmund Burke of America; Chase and Marcy 
were not much less in intellectual stature. 
Hawthorne must have met them, but we hear 
nothing of them from him. 

Hawthorne delayed his departure for England, 
until the most favorable season arrived, for his 
fragile wife and infant children to cross the 
"rolling forties." At length, on July 6, two days 
after his forty-ninth birthday, he sailed from 
Boston in the " Niagara," and with placida onda 
pros per o il vento, in about twelve days they all 
arrived safely at their destination. 

The great stone docks of Liverpool, extending 
along its whole water-front, give one a strong 
impression of the power and solidity of England. 
Otherwise the city is almost devoid of interest, 
and travellers customarily pass through it, to 
take the next train for Oxford or London, 
without further observation, unless it be to give 
a look at the conventional statue of Prince 
Albert on an Arab horse. Liverpool is not so 

267 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

foggy a place as London, but it has a damper 
and less pleasant climate, without those varied 
attractions and substantial enjoyments which 
make London one of the most pleasant resi- 
dences and most interesting of cities. 

London fog is composed of soft-coal smoke, 
^vhich, ascending from innumerable chimneys, 
is filtered in the upper skies, and then, mixed 
with vapor, is cast back upon the city by every 
change of wind. It is not unpleasant to the 
taste, and seems to be rather healthful than 
otherwise; but all the vapors which sail down 
the Gulf Stream, and which are not condensed 
on the Irish coast in the form of rain, collect about 
the mouth of the Mersey, so that the adjacent 
country is the best watered portion of all Eng- 
land, Cornwall possibly excepted. There is 
plenty of wealth in Liverpool, and all kinds of 
private entertainments, but in no other city 
of its size are there so few public entertainments, 
and the only interesting occupation that a 
stranger might find there, would be to watch the 
strange and curious characters in the lower 
classes, faces and figures that cannot be cari- 
catured, emerging from cellar-ways or dis- 
appearing through side-doors. Go into an ale- 
house in the evening and, beside the pretty 
barmaid, who deserves consideration as much 
for her good behavior as for her looks, you will 
see plainly enough where Dickens obtained his 
dramatis personce for " Barnaby Rudge" and 
"The Old Curiosity Shop." Either in Liverpool 
or in London you can see more grotesque comedy 

268 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

characters in a day, than you could meet with 
in a year in America. These poor creatures are 
pressed down, and squeezed out into what they 
are, under the superincumbent weight of an 
enormous leisure class. 

Such was the environment in which Haw- 
thorne was obliged to spend the ensuing four 
years. He soon, however, discovered a means to 
escape from the monotonous and labyrinthine 
streets of the city, by renting an imitation castle 
at Rock Ferry, — a very pretty place, much like 
Dobbs Ferry, on the Hudson, although the river 
is not so fine, — where his wife and children 
enjoyed fresh air, green grass, and all the sun- 
shine attainable, and whence he could reach the 
consulate every morning by the Mersey boat. 
We find them located there before September i. 

Of the consulate itself, Hawthorne has given 
a minute pictorial description in "Our Old 
Home," from which the following extract is 
especially pertinent to our present inquiry: 

"The Consulate of the United States in my 
day, was located in Washington Buildings (a 
shabby and smoke-stained edifice of four stories 
high, thus illustriously named in honor of our 
national establishment), at the lower corner 
of Brunswick Street, contiguous to the Goree 
Arcade, and in the neighborhood of some of 
the oldest docks. This was by no means a 
polite or elegant portion of England's great 
commercial city, nor were the apartments of 
the , American official so splendid as to indicate 
the assumption of much consular pomp on his 

269 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

part. A narrow and ill-lighted staircase gave 
access to an equally narrow and ill-lighted pas- 
sage-way on the first floor, at the extremity of 
which, surmounting a door frame, appeared 
an exceedingly stiff pictorial representation of 
the Goose and Gridiron, according to the 
English idea of those ever-to-be-honored 
symbols. The staircase and passage-way were 
often thronged of a morning, with a set of 
beggarly and piratical-looking scoundrels (I 
do no wrong to our countrymen in styling them 
so, for not one in twenty was a genuine American) , 
purporting to belong to our mercantile marine, 
and chiefly composed of Liverpool Blackball- 
ers, and the scum of every maritime nation 
on earth; such being the seamen by whose 
assistance we then disputed the navigation of 
the world with England. These specimens of a 
most unfortunate class of people were ship- 
wrecked crews in quest of bed, board, and cloth- 
ing, invalids asking permits for the hospital, 
bruised and bloody wretches complaining of 
ill-treatment by their officers, drunkards, des- 
peradoes, vagabonds, and cheats, perplexingly 
intermingled with an uncertain proportion of 
reasonably honest men. All of them (save 
here and there a poor devil of a kidnapped 
landsman in his shore-going rags) wore red flan- 
nel shirts, in which they had sweltered or shiv- 
ered throughout the voyage, and all required 
consular assistance in one form or another." 

The position of an American consul in a large 
foreign seaport, especially at Liverpool, is any- 

270 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

thing but a sinecure, and in fact requires a con- 
tinual exercise of judgment much beyond the 
average duties of a foreign minister. The 
difficulty also of being continually obliged to 
distinguish between true and false applications 
for charity, especially when the false are greatly 
in excess of the true, and among a class of 
persons notably given to mendacious tricks, is 
one of the most unpleasant conditions in which 
a tender-hearted man can find himself. As 
curious studies in low life, the rascality of 
these nautical mendicants may often have been 
interesting, and even amusing, to Hawthorne, 
but as a steady pull they must have worn hard 
on his nerves, even though his experienced 
clerk served as a breakw^ater to a considerable 
portion. It has already been noticed that 
Hawthorne was a conscientious office-holder, 
and he never trusted to others any duties 
which he was able to attend to in person. More- 
over, although he was a man of reserved manners, 
there was an exceptionally tender, sympathetic 
heart behind this impenetrable exterior, and it 
may be suspected that he relieved many instances 
of actual distress, which could not be brought 
within the government regulations. He may 
have suffered like the ghost in Dickens's 
"Haunted Man," on account of those whom he 
could not assist. It is certain that he aged more, 
in appearance at least, during these four years, 
than at any similar period of his life. 

It is no wonder, therefore, that, after a visit to 
the English lakes, the following summer, Haw- 

271 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

thorne wrote to his friend, Henry Bright, from 
Liverpool : 

"I have come back only for a day or two to this black 
and miserable hole. I do not mean to apply these two ad- 
jectives to my consulate, but to the whole of Liverpool." 

Yet it should be recollected that there were 
nearly a million of persons in Liverpool, who 
were obliged to spend their lives there, for good 
and evil fortune; and, as Emerson says, we can 
never think too lightly of our own difficulties. 

Neither did Hawthorne find the news from 
America particularly interesting. On March 
30, 1854, he wrote to Bridge: 

"I like my ofifice well enough, but my official duties 
and obligations are irksome to me beyond expression. 
Nevertheless, the emoluments will be a sufficient induce- 
ment to keep me here, though they are not above a 
quarter part what some people suppose them. 

"It sickens me to look back to America. I am sick to 
death of the continual fuss and tumult and excitement 
and bad blood which we keep up about political topics. 
If it were not for my children, I should probably never 
return, but — after quitting office — should go to Italy, and 
live and die there. If Mrs. Bridge and you would go too, 
we might form a little colony amongst ourselves, and see 
our children grow up together. But it will never do to 
deprive them of their native land, which I hope will be a 
more comfortable and happy residence in their day than 
it has been in ours." * 

The last sentence in this ought to be printed in 
italics, for it is the essence of patriotism. The 
"fuss and tumult" in America were due, for the 



* J. Hawthorne, ii. 65. 
272 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

time being, to the apple of discord which Douglas 
had cast into the Senate, by his Kansas- Ne- 
braska bill. Hawthorne was too far away to 
distinguish the full force and insidious character 
of that measure, but if he had been in Concord, 
we believe he would have recognized (as so 
many did who never had before) the imminent 
danger to the Union, from the repeated con- 
cessions to the slave power. After he had 
become disenthralled from his allegiance to 
party, we find him in his letters to Bridge, 
taking broad views on political subjects. 

An event was soon to happen, well calculated 
to disenthrall him. The Congress of 1854, after 
passing the Kansas-Nebraska bill, resolved, in 
order to prove its democratic spirit, to economize 
in the representation of our government to 
foreign powers. On April 14, the good-hearted, 
theoretical O 'Sullivan arrived in Liverpool, 
on his way to be minister to Portugal, and 
warned Hawthorne that there was a bill before 
Congress to reduce the consulate there to a 
salaried position. This was a terrible damper 
on Hawthorne's great expectations, and on 
April 17 he wrote again to Bridge, protesting 
against the change : * 

"1 trust, in Heaven's mercy, that no change will be made 
as regards the emoluments of the Liverpool consulate — 
unless indeed a salary is to be given in addition to the fees, 
in which case I should receive it very thankfully. This, 
however, is not to be expected; and if Liverpool is touched 

* Bridge, 135, 136. 
18 273 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

at all, it will be to limit its emoluments by a fixed salary — 
which will render the office not worth any man's holding. 
It is impossible (especially for a man with a family and 
keeping any kind of an establishment) not to spend a vast 
deal of money here. The office, unfortunately, is regarded 
as one of great dignity, and puts the holder on a level 
with the highest society, and compels him to associate on 
equal terms with men who spend more than my whole 
income on the mere entertainments ' and other trimmings 
and embroidery of their lives. Then I feel bound to exer- 
cise some hospitality towards my own countrymen. I keep 
out of society as much as I decently can, and really practice 
as stem an economy as I ever did in my life; but, nev- 
ertheless, I have spent many thousands of dollars in the 
few months of my residence here, and cannot reasonably 
hope to spend less than six thousand per annum, even 
after all the expenditure of setting up an establishment is 
defrayed." 

In addition to this, he states that his pred- 
ecessor in office, John J. Crittenden, never 
received above fifteen thousand dollars in fees, 
of which he saved less than half. 

We can trust this to be the plain truth in 
regard to the Liverpool consulate, and if twenty- 
five thousand a year was ever obtained from it, 
there must have been some kind of deviltry 
in the business. Congress proved inexorable, — 
as it might not have been, had Hawthorne 
possessed the influence of a prominent politician 
like Crittenden. It was a direct affront to the 
President from his own party, and Pierce did not 
dare to veto the bill. 

What O' Sullivan said to Hawthorne on other 
subjects may be readily inferred from Haw- 
thorne's next letter to Bridge, in which he begs 

274 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

him to remain in Washington for Pierce's sake, 
and says: 

"I feel a sorrowful sympathy for the poor fellow (for 
God's sake don't show him this), and hate to have him 
left without one true friend, or one man, who will speak a 
single honest word to him." 

It is not very clear how Horatio Bridge could 
counteract the influence of Jefferson Davis and 
Caleb Gushing, but this shows that Franklin 
Pierce's weakness as an administrator was 
already painfully apparent to his friends, and 
that even Hawthorne could no longer disguise 
it to himself. 



275 



CHAPTER XIII 

Hawthorne in England: 1854-1858 

Hawthorne's life in England was too gen- 
erally monotonous to afford many salient points 
to his biographer. It was monotonous in his 
official duties, in his pleasure-trips, and in his 
social experiences. He found one good friend 
in Liverpool, Mr. Henry Bright, to whom he had 
already been introduced in America, and he 
soon made another in Mr. Francis Bennoch, 
who lived near the same city. They were both 
excellent men, and belonged to that fine class 
of Englishmen who possess a comfortable income, 
but live moderately, and prefer cultivating 
their minds and the society of their friends, to 
clubs, yachting, horse-racing, and other forms 
of external show. They were not distinguished, 
and were too sensible to desire distinction. 
Henry Bright may have been the more highly 
favored in Hawthorne's esteem, but they both 
possessed that tact and delicacy of feeling which 
is rare among Englishmen, and by accepting 
Hawthorne simply as a man like themselves, 
instead of as a celebrity, they won that place in 
his confidence from which so many had been 
excluded. 

Otherwise, Hawthorne contracted no friend- 
ships among distinguished Englishmen of letters, 
like that between Emerson and Carlyle; and 

276 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

from first to last he saw little of them. He had 
no sooner landed than he was greeted with a 
number of epistles from sentimental ladies, 
or authors of a single publication, who claimed a 
spiritual kinship with him, because of their 
admiration for his writings. One of them even 
addressed him as "My dear brother." These he 
filed away with a mental reservation to give 
the writers as wide a circuit as he possibly could. 
He attended a respectable number of dinner 
parties in both Liverpool and London, at which 
he remained for the most part a silent and 
unobtrusive guest. He was not favored with an 
invitation to Holland House, although he met 
Lady Holland on one occasion, and has left a 
description of her, not more flattering than 
others that have been preserved for us. He also 
met Macaulay and the Brownings at Lord 
Houghton's; but for once Macaulay would not 
talk. Mrs. Browning evidently pleased Haw- 
thorne very much.* The great lights of English 
literature besides these, — Tennyson, Carlyle, 
Ruskin, Thackeray, Dickens, — he was never 
introduced to, although he saw Tennyson in a 
picture-gallery at Manchester, and has left a 
description of him, such as might endure to the 
end of time. Neither did he make the acquaint- 
ance of those three luminaries, Froude, Marian 
Evans, and Max Miiller, who rose above the 
horizon, previous to his return to America. 
That he was not presented at Court was a matter 

* J. Hawthorne, ii. 129. 
277 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

of course. There was nothing which he could 
have cared for less. 

After his return he published a volume 
of English sketches, which he entitled "Our 
Old Home," but he seems to have felt actually 
less at home in England than in any other 
country that he visited. In that book, and also 
in his diary, the even tenor of his discourse is 
interrupted here and there by fits of irritability 
which disclose themselves in the use of epithets 
such as one would hardly expect from the pen 
of Hawthorne. If we apply to him the well- 
known proverb with respect to the Russians, 
we can imagine that under similar conditions 
an inherited sailor-like tendency in him came 
to the surface. We only remember one such 
instance in his American Note-book, that in 
which he speaks of Thoreau's having a face "as 
homely as sin."* Hawthorne did not carry with 
him to Europe that narrow provincialism, 
which asserts itself in either condemning or 
ridiculing everything that differs essentially 
from American ways and methods. On the 
contrary, when he compares the old country 
with the new, — for instance, the English scenery 
with that of New England, — Hawthorne is 
usually as fair, discriminating, and dispassionate 
as any one could wish, and perhaps more so than 
some would desire. His judgment cannot 
be questioned in preferring the American elm, 

* The general efiEect of Thoreau's face was by no means 
unpleasant. 

278 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

with its wine-glass shape, to the rotund European 
species ; but he admires the English lake country 
above anything that he has seen like it in his 
own land. "Centuries of cultivation have given 
the English oak a domestic character," while 
American trees are still to be classed with the 
wild flowers which bloom beneath their out- 
stretched arms. 

Matthew Arnold spoke of his commentaries 
on England as the writing of a man chagrined; 
but what could have chagrined Hawthorne 
there ? The socially ambitious man may become 
chagrined, if he finds that doors are closed to 
him, and so may an unappreciated would-be 
genius. But Hawthorne's position as an author 
was already more firmly established than 
Matthew Arnold's ever could beT and as for 
social ambition, no writer since Shakespeare has 
been so free from it. It seems more probable 
that the difficulty with Hawthorne in this 
respect was due to his old position on the 
slavery question, which now began to bear 
bitter fruit for him. All Englishmen at that 
time, with the exception of Carlyle, Froude, 
and the nobility, were very strongly anti- 
slavery, — the more so, as it cost them nothing 
to have other men's slaves liberated, — and the 
English are particularly blunt, not to say gauche, 
in introducing topics of conversation which are 
liable to become a matter of controversy. At 
the first dinner-party I attended in London 
sorne thirty-odd years ago, I had scarcely 
tasted the soup, before a gentleman opposite 

279 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

asked me: "What progress are you making in 
the United States toward free trade? Can you 
tell me, sir?" He might as well have asked me 
what progress we were making in the direction 
of monarchy. Fortunately for Hawthorne, his 
good taste prevented him from introducing the 
slavery question in his publications, excepting 
in the life of Pierce, but for this same reason his 
English acquaintances in various places were 
obliged to discover his opinions at first hand, nor 
is it very likely that they were slow to do this. 
Phillips and Garrison had been to England and 
through England, and their dignified speeches 
had made an excellent impression. Longfellow, 
Emerson, Lowell and Whittier had spoken with 
no uncertain sound, protesting against what 
they considered a great national evil. How did 
it happen that Hawthorne was an exception? 

Through his kind friend Mr. Bennoch, he fell in 
with a worthy whom it would have been just as 
well to have avoided — the proverbial-philosophy 
poet, Martin Farquhar Tupper; not a genuine 
poet, nor considered as such by trustworthy 
critics, but such a good imitation, that he per- 
suaded himself and a large portion of the British 
public, including Queen Victoria, that he was one. 
Hawthorne has given an account of his visit to 
this man,* second only in value to his description 
of Tennyson; for it is quite as important for us 
to recognize the deficiencies of the one, as it is 
to know the true appearance of the other. It 

* J. Hawthorne, ii. 114. 
280 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

is an unsparing study of human nature, but if a 
man places himself on a pedestal for all people 
to gaze at, it is just this and nothing more that 
he has to expect. Hawthorne represents him 
as a kindly, domestic, affectionate, bustling little 
man, who kept on bustling with his hands and 
tongue, even while he was seated — a man of no 
dignity of character or perception of his de- 
ficiency of it. This all does well enough, but 
when Hawthorne says, " I liked him, and laughed 
in my sleeve at him, and was utterly weary 
of him; for certainly he is the ass of asses," we 
feel that he has gone too far, and suspect that 
there was some unpleasantness connected w4th 
the occasion, of which we are not informed. 
The word "ass," as applied to a human being, 
is not current in good literature, unless low 
comedy be entitled to that position, and coming 
from Hawthorne, of all writers, it seems like 
an oath from the mouth of a woman. Tupper, 
who was quite proud of his philanthropy, was 
also much of an abolitionist, and he may have 
trodden on Hawthorne's metaphysical toes half 
a dozen times, without being aware of what he 
was doing. Altogether, it seems like rather an 
ill return for Tupper's hospitality; but Haw- 
thorne himself did not intend it for publication, 
and on the whole one does not regret that it has 
been given to the public. We have been, how- 
ever, anticipating the order of events. 

During the summer of 1854, the Hawthorne 
family made a number of unimportant expe- 
ditions, visiting mediaeval abbeys and ruinous 

281 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

castles, — especially one to Chester and Eton Hall, 
which was not quite worth the fees they paid 
to the janitors. An ancient walled city is much 
of a novelty to an American for the first time, 
but, having seen one, you have seen them all, 
and Chester Cathedral does not stand high in 
English architecture. On September 14, O'Sul- 
livan appeared again, and they all went into the 
Welsh mountains, where they examined the old 
fortresses of Rhyl and Conway, which were built 
by Edward Longshanks to hold the Welshmen 
in check. Those relics of the feudal system are 
very impressive, not only on account of their 
solidity and the great human forces which they 
represent, but from a peculiar beauty of their 
own, which modern fortifications do not possess 
at all. They seem to belong to the ground they 
stand on, and the people who live about them 
look upon them as cherished landmarks. They 
are the monuments of an heroic age, and Haw- 
thorne's interest in them was characteristic of 
his nature. 

O 'Sullivan returned to Lisbon early in October, 
and on the 5th of that month, Hawthorne 
found himself obliged to make a speech at an 
entertainment on board a merchant vessel called 
the "James Barnes," which had been btiilt in 
Boston for a Liverpool firm of ship-owners. 
He considered this the most serious portion of his 
ofiicial duty, — the necessity of making after- 
dinner speeches at the Mayor's or other public 
tables. He writes several pages on the subject in 
a humorously complainant tone, congratulating 

282 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

himself that on the present occasion he has 
succeeded admirably, for he has really said 
nothing, and that is precisely what he intended to 
do. After-dinner speeches are like soap-bubbles : 
they are made of nothing, signify nothing, float 
for a moment in the air, attract a momentary 
attention, and then disappear. But the diffi- 
culty is, to make an apparent something out 
of nothing, to say nothing that will offend 
anybody, and to say something that will be 
different from what others say. It is truly a 
hard situation in which to place even a very 
talented man, and, as Longfellow once remarked, 
those were most fortunate who made their 
speeches first, and could then enjoy their dinner, 
while their successors were writhing in agony. 
However, there are those who like it, and having 
practised it to perfection, can do it better than 
an^^thing else. Hawthorne analyzes his sensa- 
tions, after finishing his speech, with rare self- 
perception. " After sitting down, I was conscious 
of an enjoyment in speaking to a public assembly, 
and felt as if I should like to rise again. It is 
something like being under fire, — a sort of 
excitement, not exactly pleasure, but more 
piquant than most pleasures." Was it President 
Jackson, or Senator Benton, who said that 
fighting a duel was very much like making one's 
maiden speech? 

Mrs. Hawthorne thus describes the residence of 
the President of the Chamber of Commerce at 
Liverpool : * 

* Mrs. Lathrop, 238. 
283 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

"We were ushered into the drawing-room, 
which looked more like a brilliant apartment 
in Versailles than what I had expected to see. 
The panels were richly gilt, with mirrors in the 
centre, and hangings of gilded paper; and the 
broad windows were hung with golden-colored 
damask; the furniture was all of the same 
hue; with a carpet of superb flowers; and 
vases of living flowers standing everywhere; 
and a chandelier of diamonds (as to indefatig- 
able and vivid shining), and candlesticks of 
the same, — not the long prisms like those on 
Mary's astral, but a network of crystals diamond- 
cut. " 

This was the coarse commercial taste of the 
time, previous to the reforms of Ruskin and 
Eastlake. The same might be said of Versailles. 
There is no true elegance in gilding and glass- 
work, including mirrors, unless they be sparingly 
used. 

The Hawthornes were equally overpowered 
by a dinner-party given by a millionaire and 
country squire of Liscard Vale; "two enormous 
silver dish-covers, with the gleam of Damascus 
blades, putting out all the rest of the light;" 
and after the fish, these were replaced by two 
other enormous dishes of equal brilliancy. The 
table was shortly covered with an array of 
silver dishes, reflecting the lights above in dazzling 
splendor. At one end of the table was a roast 
goose and at the other a boiled turkey; while 
"cutlets, fricassees, ragouts, tongue, chicken- 
pies," and much else, filled the intermediate 

284 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

spaces, and the sideboard groaned under a 
round of beef "like the dome of St. Peter's." 
It was fortunate that the American consul came 
to this Herculean repast with an excellent 
appetite. 

Henry Bright v/as their chief refuge from this 
flummery, as Hawthorne called it ; "an extremely 
interesting, sincere, earnest, independent, warm 
and generous hearted man; not at all dogmatic; 
full of questions, and with ready answers. He 
is highly cultivated, and writes for the West- 
minster," — a man who respected formalities and 
could preserve decorum in his own household, but 
liked a simple, unostentatious mode of living — in 
brief, he was a true English gentleman. Mrs. 
Hawthorne has drawn his portrait with only 
less skill than her husband: 

"His eyes are large, bright, and prominent, 
rather indicating great facility of language, 
which he has. He is an Oxford scholar, and has 
decided literary tastes. He is delicately strung, 
and is as transparent-minded and pure-hearted 
as a child, with great enthusiasm and earnest- 
ness of character; and, though a Liberal, very 
loyal to his Queen and very admiring of the 
aristocracy. " 

He appears to have been engaged in the 
Australian carrying trade, and owned the largest 
sailing vessel afloat. 

Hawthorne went to an exhibition of English 
landscape paintings, and he remarked that 
Turner's seemed too ethereal to have been 
painted by mortal hands, — the finest com- 

285 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

pliment that Turner could have received, for in 
delicate effects of light and shade, — in painting 
the atmosphere itself, — he has no rival. 

In January, James Buchanan, who was then 
minister to England, came to visit Hawthorne, 
and talked with him about the presidency, — 
for which he considered himself altogether too 
old ; but at the same time he did not suggest the 
renomination of Franklin Pierce. This, of course, 
disclosed his own ambition, and as Hawthorne's 
impartial pen-and-ink sketch of him may not 
be recognized by many readers, on account 
of the form in which it appears in the note-books, 
we append it here, with the regret that Haw- 
thorne could not have treated his friend Pierce 
in an equally candid manner. 

" I like Mr. . He cannot exactly be called 

gentlemanly in his manners, there being a sort 
of rusticity about him; moreover, he has a 
habit of squinting one eye, and an awkward 
carriage of his head; but, withal, a dignity in 
his large person, and a consciousness of high 
position and importance, which give him ease 
and freedom. Very simple and frank in his 
address, he may be as crafty as other diplo- 
matists are said to be; but I see only good 
sense and plainness of speech, — appreciative, 
too, and genial enough to make himself con- 
versable. He talked very freely of himself 
and of other public people, and of American 
and English affairs. He returns to America, 
he says, next October, and then retires forever 
from public life. " 

286 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

A certain amount of rusticity would seem to 
have been essential to a presidential candidate 
during the middle of the past century. 

During this dismal winter Hawthorne was 
beset more than ever, by nautical mendicants 
of all countries, — Hungarians, Poles, Cubans, 
Spanish Americans, and French Republicans, 
who, unhappily for him, had discovered that the 
American consul was a tender-hearted man. 
He had, beside, to deal with a number of dif- 
ficult cases of maltreated American sailors, — 
the more difficult, because both parties to the 
suits were greatly given to lying, even on 
occasions when it would have been more ex- 
pedient for them to tell the truth. He has 
recorded one such in his diary, that deserves 
more than a superficial consideration. 

An American bark was on the point of sailing, 
when the captain cast ashore a bruised and 
battered-looking man, who made his way pain- 
fully to the consulate, and begged Hawthorne 
for a permit to be placed in the hospital. He 
called himself the son of a South Carolina farmer, 
and stated that he had gone on board this vessel 
with a load of farm products, but had been 
impressed by the captain for the voyage, and 
had been so maltreated, that he thought he 
would die, — and so he did, not long afterward, at 
the hospital. Letters were found upon him, 
substantiating the statement concerning his 
father, but it was discovered, from the same 
source, that he was a jail-bird, and the tattooed 
figures upon his arms showed that he had been 

287 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

a sailor of many years' standing, although he 
had denied this to the consul. Hawthorne 
speaks of him as an innocent man, the victim 
of criminal brutality little less than murder; 
it is certainly difficult to account for such severe 
ill-treatment, but the man was clearly a bad 
character, and it is also true that sea-captains 
do not interfere with their deck-hands without 
some kind of provocation. The man clung 
desperately to life up to the last moment, and 
the letters he carried with him indicated that he 
was more intelligent than the average of the 
nautical fraternity. 

In June, Hawthorne went with his family 
to Leamington, of which he afterward published 
an account in the Atlantic Monthly, criticised at 
the time for the manner in which he referred 
to English ladies, as "covering a large area of 
Nature's foot-stool"; but this element in Haw- 
thorne's English writing has already been 
considered. From Leamington he went, early 
in July, to the English lakes, especially Winder- 
mere, and fortunately found time to thoroughly 
enjoy them. He enjoyed them not only for their 
scenery, which he preferred to that of New 
England, but also as illustrations to many 
descriptive passages in Wordsworth's poetry, 
which serves the same purpose in the gtddebook 
of that region, as "Childe Harold" serves in the 
guidebooks for Italy and Greece. Hawthorne 
also was interested in such places for the sake of 
their associations. He describes Wordsworth's 
house, the grounds about it, and the cemetery 

288 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

where he lies, with the accuracy of a scientific 
report. He finds the grass growing too high 
about the head-stone of Wordsworth's grave, 
and plucks it away with his own hands, reflecting 
that it may have drawn its nourishment from his 
mortal remains. We may suppose that he 
preserved this grass, and it is only from such 
incidental circumstances that we discover who 
were Hawthorne's favorites among poets and 
other distinguished writers. He twice visited 
Wordsworth's grave. 

Their first two winters in Liverpool had not 
proved favorable to Mrs. Hawthorne's health. 
She had contracted a disorder in her throat 
from the prevailing dampness, which threatened 
to become chronic, and her husband felt that it 
would not be prudent for her to remain there 
another winter. He thought of resigning and 
returning to America. Then he thought of 
exchanging his consulship for one in southern 
Europe, although the salaries of the more 
southern consulates were hardly sufficient to 
support a married man. Then he thought of 
exchanging places with O' Sullivan, but he 
hardly knew languages well enough for an 
ambassador. The doctors, however, had advised 
Mrs. Hawthorne to spend a winter at Madeira, 
and she courageously solved the problem by 
proposing to go there alone with her daughters, 
for which Lisbon and O 'Sullivan would serve as 
a stepping-stone by the way. There are wives 
who would prefer such an expedition to spending 
a winter in England with their husbands, but 
19 289 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

Mrs. Hawthorne was not of that mould, and in 
her case it was a brave thing to do. 

Accordingly, on the second Monday in October, 
Mrs. Hawthorne and her two daughters sailed for 
Lisbon. She was presented at court there; 
concerning which occasion she wrote a lengthy 
and very interesting account to her husband, 
published in her son's biography. The King of 
Portugal held a long conversation with her and 
Minister O 'Sullivan, and she describes him as 
dressed in a flamboyant manner, — a scarlet 
uniform, lavishly ornamented with diamonds. 
With how much better taste did the Empress of 
Austria receive the President of the French 
Republic, — in a simple robe of black velvet, 
fastened at her throat with a diamond brooch. 
One can envy Mrs. Hawthorne a winter at 
Madeira, for there is no place in Europe pleasanter 
for that purpose, unless it be Rome. Meanwhile, 
her husband spent the winter with his son (who 
was now old enough to be trusted safely about the 
streets), at a sea-captains' boarding-house in 
Liverpool. There, as in Salem, he felt himself 
most companionable in such company, as he had 
been accustomed to it from boyhood; and it 
appears that at this time he was in the habit 
of composing fables for the entertainment of 
Julian, not unlike the yarns which sailors often 
spin to beguile landsmen.* 

Hawthorne found his third winter in Liverpool 
dismal enough without his wife and the two 

* J. Hawthorne, ii. 75. 
290 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

little girls, and this feeling was considerably 
increased by his dislike for the sea-captains' 
boarding-house keeper,* with whom he was 
hving, and concerning whom he remarks, that a 
woman in England "is either decidedly a lady 
or decidedly not. ' ' She would not have annoyed 
him so much, had it not been for " her bustle, 
affectation, intensity, and pretension of literary 
taste." The race of landladies contains curious 
specimens, although we have met with some 
who w^ere real ladies nevertheless. Thackeray's 
description of a French boarding-house keeper 
in "The Adventures of Philip" goes to every 
heart. Hawthorne writes much in his diary, 
at this juncture, of his friend Francis Bennoch, 
who clearly did the best he could, as a man and a 
brother, to make life cheerful for his American 
friend ; a true, sturdy, warm-hearted Englishman. 
Christmas was celebrated at Mrs. Blodgett's, 
after the fashion of a second-rate English house 
of entertainment. The servants hung mistletoe 
about in various places, and woe to the unlucky 
wight that was caught under it. Hawthorne 
presents an amusing picture of his boy Julian, 
nine years old, struggling against the endear- 
ments of a chamber-maid, and believes that he 
himself was the only male person in the house 
that escaped. t If any man would be sure to 
escape that benediction, he would have been the 
one ; for no one could be more averse to public 
demonstrations of affection. 

* English Note-book, November 28, 1855. 
t English Note-book, December, 1855. 
291 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

Hawthorne was witness to a curious strategic 
manceuvre between President Pierce and Minister 
Buchanan, which, however, he was not suffi- 
ciently famiHar with practical politics to perceive 
the full meaning of. On the way to Southampton 
with his wife in October, they called on Buchanan 
in London, and were not only civilly but kindly 
received. Mrs. Hawthorne wished to view the 
Houses of Parliament while they were in session, 
and the ambassador made a knot in his handker- 
chief, so as to be sure to remember his promise to 
her. He informed Hawthorne at that time of 
his desire to return to America, but stated that 
the President had just written to him, requesting 
him to remain until April, although he was 
determined not to do so. He excused himself on 
the plea of old age, and Hawthorne seems to have 
had a suspicion of the insincerity of this, but 
concluded on reflection not to harbor it. Pierce 
knew already that Buchanan was his most 
dangerous rival for renomination, and desired 
that he should remain as far off as possible; 
while Buchanan was aware that, if he intended 
to be on the ground, he must not return so late 
as to attract public attention. There were so 
many presidential aspirants that Pierce may 
have found it difficult to supply Buchanan's 
place, for the time being. 

Buchanan delayed a respectful length of time, 
and then handed in his resignation. His suc- 
cessor, George M. Dallas, arrived at Liverpool 
during the second week of March, and Hawthorne 
who does not mention him by name, called upon 

292 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

him at once, and gives us this valuable portrait 
of him. 

"The ambassador is a venerable old gentle- 
man, with a full head of perfectly white hair, 
looking not unlike an old-fashioned wig; and 
this, together with his collarless white neck- 
cloth and his brown coat, gave him precisely 
such an aspect as one would expect in a respect- 
able person of pre-revolutionary days. There 
was a formal simplicity, too, in his manners, 
that might have belonged to the same era. He 
must have been a very handsome man in his 
youthful days, and is now comely, very erect, 
moderately tall, not overburdened with flesh; 
of benign and agreeable address, with a pleasant 
smile; but his eyes, which are not very large, 
impressed me as sharp and cold. He did not at 
all stamp himself upon me as a man of much 
intellectual or characteristic vigor. I found 
no such matter in his conversation, nor did I 
feel it in the indefinable way by which strength 
always makes itself acknowledged. Buchanan, 
though somehow plain and uncouth, yet vindi- 
cates himself as a large man of the world, able, 
experienced, fit to handle difficult circumstances 
of life, dignified, too, and able to hold his own 
in any society. " * 

Morton McMichael, whose statue now stands 
in Fairmount Park, once related this incident 
concerning Dallas, at a meeting of the Phila- 
delphia Hock Club. Somewhere about 1850 

* English Note-book, March, 1856. 
293 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

Dallas was invited to deliver a 4th of July 
oration at Harrisburg, where McMichael was 
also requested to read the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence. McMichael performed his part of the 
ceremony, and sat down; then Dallas arose and 
thanked the assembly for honoring him with 
such an invitation, but confessed to some dif- 
ficulty in considering what he should say, for 
an occasion which had been celebrated by so 
many famous orators; but that a few nights 
since, while he was lying awake, it occurred to 
him what he should say to them. After this he 
proceeded to read his address from a newspaper 
printed in 1841, which the audience could not 
see, but which McMichael, from his position on 
the platform, could see perfectly well. 

Hawthorne's description suggests a man some- 
what like this ; but the opinion of the Hock Club 
was that Dallas was not greatly to blame; for 
how could any man make two distinct and 
original 4th of July orations? 

The ist of April 1856, Hawthorne and Ben- 
noch set off on a bachelor expedition of their 
own, first to visit Tupper at Albany, as has 
been already related, and then going to view 
a muster of British troops at Aldershot; thence 
to Battle Abbey, which Hawthorne greatly 
admired, and the field of Hastings, where 
England's greatness began in defeat. He does 
not mention the battle, however, in his diary, 
and it may be remarked that, generally, Haw- 
thorne felt little interest in historical subjects. 
After this, they went to London, where Bennoch 

294 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

introduced Hawthorne at the Milton Club and 
the Reform Club. At the former, he again 
encountered Martin F. Tupper, and became 
acquainted with Tom Taylor, the editor of 
Punch, as well as other writers and editors, of 
whom he had not previously heard. The Club 
was by no means Miltonic, and one would suppose 
not exactly the place where Hawthorne would 
find himself much at home. Neither were the 
proceedings altogether in good taste. Bennoch 
opened the ball with a highly eulogistic speech 
about Hawthorne, and was followed by some 
fifty others in a similar strain, so that the un- 
fortunate incumbent must have wished that the 
earth would open and let him down to the shades 
of night below. On such an occasion, even a 
feather weight becomes a burden. Oh, for a boy, 
with a tin horn ! 

Neither did Hawthorne apparently find his 
peers at the Reform Club. Douglas Jerrold, 
who reminded him somewhat of Ellery Channing, 
was the most notable writer he met there. 
There was, however, very little speech-making, 
and plenty of good conversation. Unfortunately, 
he offended Jerrold, by using the word "acrid" 
as applied to his writing, instead of some other 
word, which he could not think of at the moment. 
The difficulty, however, was made up over a 
fresh bottle of Burgundy, and with the help of 
Hawthorne's unlimited good- will, so that they 
parted excellent friends, and much the better 
for having known each other. Either Jerrold or 
some other present told Hawthorne that the 

295 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

English aristocracy, for the most part hated, 
despised, and feared men of literary genius. 
Is it not much the same in America? 

After these two celebrations, and attending 
the Lord Mayor's banquet, where he admired 
the beautiful Jewess whom he has described as 
Miriam in "The Marble Faun," Hawthorne 
returned to Liverpool; and early in May took 
another recess, with a Mr. Bowman, to York, 
Edinburgh, the Trossachs, Abbotsford, and all 
the haunts of Scott and Burns ; with his account 
of which a large portion of the second volume of 
English Note-books is filled ; so that, if Scotland 
should sink into the sea, as a portion is already 
supposed to have done in antediluvian times, 
all those places could be reconstructed through 
Hawthorne's description of them. 

This expedition lasted nearly three weeks, and 
on June 12 Hawthorne received word that his 
wife, with Una and Rose, had already landed 
at Southampton. He hastened at once to meet 
them, greatly rejoiced to find Mrs. Hawthorne 
entirely restored to health. They had been 
separated for more than seven months. 

They first proceeded to Salisbury, to see the 
cathedral and Stonehenge, — the former, very 
impressive externally, but not so satisfactory 
within ; and the latter, a work of man emerging 
out of Nature. Then they went to London, to 
enjoy the June season, and see the regular 
course of sights in that huge metropolis. They 
visited St. Paul's, the Tower, Guildhall, the 
National Gallery, the British Museum, West- 

296 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

minster Abbey, and the Houses of Parliament, 
apparently finding as much satisfaction in this 
conventional occupation as they did in the 
social entertainments of London. At the house 
of Mr. S. C. Hall, a noted entertainer of those 
days, Hawthorne became acquainted with the 
most celebrated singer of her time, or perhaps of 
all time; namely, Jenny Lind. No modern 
orator has held such a sway over the hearts of 
men and women, as that Swedish nightingale, — 
for the purity of her voice seemed no more than 
the emanation of her lofty nature. Hawthorne 
describes her as a frank, sincere person, rather 
tall, — certainly no beauty, but with sense and 
self-reliance in her aspect and manners. She 
immediately gave Hawthorne an illustration of 
her frankness by complaining of the unhealthy 
manner in which Americans, and especially 
American women, lived. This seems like a pro- 
saic subject for such a person, but it was natural 
enough; for a concert singer has to live like 
a race-horse, and this would be what would 
constantly strike her attention in a foreign 
country. Hawthorne rallied to the support of 
his countrywomen, and believed that they 
were, on the whole, as healthy and long-lived 
as Europeans. This may be so now, but there has 
been great improvement in the American mode 
of living, during the past fifty years, and we can 
imagine that Jenny Lind often found it difficult 
to obtain such food as she required. 

That she should have requested an intro- 
duction to Hawthorne is significant of her 

297 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

interest in American literature, and suggests a 
taste as refined and elevated as her music. 

It was on Hawthorne's wedding-day this 
happened, and a few days later he was invited 
to a select company at Monckton Milnes's, 
which included Macaulay, the Brownings, and 
Professor Ticknor. He found both the Brownings 
exceedingly pleasant and accessible, but was 
somewhat startled to find that Mrs. Browning 
was a believer in spiritism — not such a sound and 
healthy intelligence as the author of "Middle- 
march," and he might have been still more so, 
if he had known that she and her husband were 
ardent admirers of Louis Napoleon. That was 
something which an American in those days 
could not quite understand. However, he found 
her an exceedingly pleasant companion. After 
dinner they looked over several volumes of 
autographs, in which Oliver Cromwell's was the 
only one that would to-day be more valuable 
than Hawthorne's own. 

A breakfast at Monckton Milnes's usually 
included the reading of a copy of verses of his 
own composition, but perhaps he had not yet 
reached that stage on the present occasion. 

Hawthorne heard such varied and conflicting 
accounts of Charles Dickens that he hardly 
knew whether he would like to meet him or not. 
He wanted to see Tennyson when he was at the 
Isle of Wight, but feared that his visit might be 
looked on as an intrusion, by a person who 
lived so retired a life, — judging perhaps from 
his own experience. While at Windermere he 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

paused for a moment in front of Harriet Mar- 
tineau's cottage, but on second thought he con- 
cluded to leave the good deaf lady in peace. 

Conway speaks of Hawthorne's social life in 
England as a failure ; but failure suggests an ef- 
fort in some direction or other, and Hawthorne 
made no social efforts. Being lionized was not 
his business. He had seen enough of it during 
the London season of 1856, and after that he 
retired into his domestic shell, cultivating 
the acquaintance of his wife and children more 
assiduously than ever, so that even his two faith- 
ful allies, Bright and Bennoch, found it diffi- 
cult to withdraw him from it. Watching the 
development of a fine child is much more 
satisfactory than any course of fashionable 
entertainments — even than Lowell's twenty-nine 
dinner-parties in the month of June. Nothing 
becomes more tedious than long-continued pleas- 
ure-seeking, with post-prandial speeches and a 
constant effort to be agreeable. 

Hawthorne remained in England fully seven- 
teen months after this, and made a number of 
excursions; especially one to Oxford, where he 
and his family were dined by a former mayor of 
the city, and where he greatly admired the broad 
verdant grounds and Gothic architecture of the 
colleges; and also a second journey to Edin- 
burgh and the Trossachs, undertaken for the 
benefit of Mrs. Hawthorne and Una. But we 
hear no more of him in London society, and it 
only, remains for us to chronicle his exceptional 
kindness to an unfortunate American woman. 

299 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

It seems strange that the first doubt in regard 
to the authorship of Shakespeare should have 
originated on this side of the Atlantic. If 
Dante was a self-educated poet, there seems no 
good reason why Shakespeare should not have 
been ; and if the greatest of French writers earned 
his living as an actor, why should not the great- 
est of English writers have done the same? 
That would seem to be much more in harmony 
with the central idea of American life — the prin- 
ciple of self-helpfulness; but this is a skeptical 
epoch, and the tendency of our political insti- 
tutions is toward skepticism of character and 
distrust of tradition. Hence we have Delia 
Bacon, Holmes, and Donnelly. 

Hawthorne has given future generations an 
account of Delia Bacon, which will endure as the 
portrait of a gifted and interesting woman, 
diverted from the normal channels of feminine 
activity by the force of a single idea; but he 
makes no mention of his efforts in her behalf. 
He found her in the lodgings of a London trades- 
man, and although she received him in a pleas- 
ant and lady-like manner, he quickly perceived 
that her mind was in an abnormal condition, 
and that it was positively dangerous to discuss 
her favorite topic in a rational manner. He 
had a feeling that the least opposition on his 
part to the Baconian theory would result in his 
expulsion from the room, yet he found her con- 
versation interesting, and recognized that if her 
conclusions were erroneous she had neverthe- 
less unearthed valuable historic material, which 

300 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

ought to be given to the world. He loaned her 
money, which he did not expect to be repaid, 
and exerted himself to find a publisher for her, 
recollecting perhaps the vows he had made to 
the gods in the days of his own obscurity. He 
mentions in his diary calling on the Rutledges for 
this purpose — where he saw Charles Reade, a 
tall, strong-looking man, just leaving the office. 
He also wrote to Ticknor & Fields, and finally 
did get Miss Bacon's volume brought out in Lon- 
don. The critics treated it in a contemptuous 
manner, as a desecration of Shakespeare's mem- 
ory; and Hawthorne was prepared for this, but 
it opened a new era in English bibliography. 
Shortly after the publication of her book Miss 
Bacon became insane. 

To many this appeared like a Quixotic adven- 
ture, but now we can see that it was not, and 
that it was necessary in its way to prove the 
generosity of Hawthorne. We can readily infer 
from it what he might have done with ampler 
means, and what he must often have wished to 
do. To be sure, the truest kindness to Delia 
Bacon would have been to have purchased a 
ticket on a Cunard steamer for her, after her 
own funds had given out, and to have persuaded 
her to return to her own country ; but those who 
have dealt with persons whose whole vitality is 
absorbed in a single idea, can testify how dif- 
ficult, if not impossible, this would have been. 
It redounds the more to Hawthorne's credit 
that although Elizabeth Peabody was converted 
to Delia Bacon's theory, Hawthorne himself 

301 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

never entertained misgivings as to the reality 
of Shakespeare as a poet and a dramatist. 

He had doubts, however, and I felt the same 
in regard to the authenticity of the verses on 
Shakespeare's marble slab. It is fortunate that 
Miss Bacon's purpose of opening the tomb at 
Stratford was not carried out, but that is no 
reason why it should not be opened in a prop- 
erly conducted manner, for scientific purposes — 
in order to discover all that is possible concern- 
ing so remarkable and mysterious a personality. 
Raphael's tomb has been opened, and why 
should not Shakespeare's be also? 

At the Democratic convention in 1856 the 
Southern delegates wished to renominate Frank- 
lin Pierce, but the Northern delegates refused 
their agreement to this, because they knew that 
in such a case they would be liable to defeat in 
their own districts. James Buchanan was ac- 
cordingly nominated, and Pierce's fears in regard 
to him were fully realized. He was elected in 
November, and the following June appointed 
Beverly Tucker to succeed Hawthorne as consul 
at Liverpool. Hawthorne resigned his office 
on July I, 1857, and went with his family on a 
long tour in Scotland. Two weeks earlier he 
had written a memorial to the Secretary of State 
concerning the maltreatment of a special class of 
seamen, which deserved more consideration than 
it received from the government at Washington. 

The gold discoveries in California had induced 
a large immigration to America from the Brit- 

302 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

ish Isles, and many who went thither in hopes of 
bettering their fortunes became destitute from 
lack of employment, and attempted to work their 
passage back to Liverpool in American sailing 
vessels. It is likely that they often repre- 
sented themselves as more experienced mari- 
ners than they actually were, and there were 
also a good many stowaways who might ex- 
pect little mercy; but there was no court in 
England that could take cognizance of their 
wrongs, — in order to obtain justice they would 
have to return to America, — and it cannot be 
doubted that the more brutal sort of officers 
took advantage of this fact. The evil became so 
notorious that the British minister at Wash- 
ington requested Pierce's administration to 
have legislation enacted that would cover this 
class of cases, but the President declined to in- 
terfere. This may have been prudent policy, 
but Hawthorne felt for the sufferers, and the 
memorial that he submitted to our government 
on their account has a dignity, a clearness and 
cogency of statement, worthy of Blackstone 
or Marshall. It is in marked contrast to the 
evasive reply of Secretary Cass, both for its fine 
English and for the directness of its logic. It 
is published at length in Julian Hawthorne's 
biography of his father, and is unique for the in- 
sight which it affords as to Hawthorne's men- 
tal ability in this direction. We may infer 
from it that if he had made a study of juris- 
prudence, he might have risen to the highest 
position as a writer on law. 

303 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

Hawthorne's English Note-books are the least 
interesting of that series, on account of the 
literal descriptions of castles, abbeys, scenery 
and palaces, with which they abound. The 
perfectly cultivated condition of England and 
Scotland, so far as he went in the latter country, 
is not stimulating to the imagination; for, as 
he says somewhere, even the trees seemed to be 
thoroughly domesticated. They are excellent 
reading for Americans who have never been to 
England, or for those who wish to renew their 
memories in regard to certain places there — 
perhaps better for the latter than for the former ; 
and there are fine passages in them, especially 
his descriptions of the old abbeys and Gothic 
cathedrals, which seem to have delighted him 
more than the gardens at Blenheim and Eton, 
and to have brought to the surface a rare 
quality in his nature, or otherwise hidden in its 
depths, — his enthusiasm. Never before did 
words fail him until he attempted to describe the 
effect of a Gothic cathedral, — the time-hon- 
ored mystery of its arches, the sober radiance 
of its stained windows, and the solemn aspira- 
tion of its lofty vault. As Schiller says, they 
are the monuments of a mighty civilization of 
which we know only too little. 

Hawthorne's object in writing these detailed 
accounts of his various expeditions becomes 
apparent from a passage in his Note-book, of 
the date of August 21, 1856, in which he says: 
"In my English romance, an American might 
bring a certain tradition from over the sea, 

304 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

and so discover the cross which had been long 
since forgotten." It may have been his inten- 
tion from the first to write a romance based on 
EngHsh soil, but that soil was no longer pro- 
ductive of such intellectual fruit, except in the 
form in which Dickens dug it up, like peat, out 
of the lower classes. We find Francis Ben- 
noch writing to Hawthorne after his return 
to America,* hoping to encourage him in this di- 
rection, but without apparent effect. Instead of 
a romance, he made a collection of essays from 
those portions of his diary which were most 
closely connected together, enlarging them and 
rounding them out, which he published after his 
return to America, in the volume we have often 
referred to as "Our Old Home." But as truth- 
ful studies of English life and manners Mrs. 
Hawthorne's letters, though not always sensi- 
ble, are much more interesting than her hus- 
band's diary. 

When Doctor Johnson was inquired of by a 
lady why he defined " pastern' ' in his Diction- 
ary as the knee of a horse, he replied, " Igno- 
rance, madam, pure ignorance ;' ' and if Haw- 
thorne had been asked a year afterwards why 
he went to Scotland in the summer of 1857, 
instead of to the Rhine and Switzerland, he 
might have given a similar excuse. In this 
way he missed the grandest and some of the 
most beautiful scenery in Europe. He could 

* Mrs. Lathrop, 310. 
20 305 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

not, however, have been ignorant of the at- 
tractions of Paris, and yet he Hngered in Eng- 
land until the following January, and then 
went over to that metropolis of fashion at a 
most unseasonable time. He had, indeed, 
planned to leave England in October,* and does 
not explain why he remained longer. He made 
a last visit to London in November, where he 
became reconciled to his fellow-townsmen of 
Salem, in the person of Edward Silsbee, of 
whom he writes as "a man of great intelligence 
and true feeling, absolutely brimming over 
with ideas." Mr. Silsbee was an amateur 
art critic and connoisseur, who often made 
himself serviceable to American travellers in 
the way of a gentleman-cicerone. He went 
with the Hawthorne family to the Crystal 
Palace, where there were casts of all famous 
statues, models of architecture, and the like, 
and gave Hawthorne his first lesson in art criti- 
cism. Hawthorne indicated a preference for 
Michel Angelo's statue of Giuliano de' Medici, 
called "II Pensero;" also for the "Perseus" 
of Cellini, and the Gates of the Florentine Bap- 
tistery by Lorenzo Ghiberti. If we except the 
other statues of Michel Angelo, these are the 
most distinguished works in sculpture of the 
modern world. 

* English Note-book, December, 1857. 



306 



CHAPTER XIV 
Italy 

Hawthorne went to Italy as naturally as 
the salmon ascends the rivers in spring. His 
artistic instinct drew him thither as the original 
home of modern art and literature, and per- 
haps also his interest in the Latin language, 
the single study which he cared for in boyhood. 
Does not romance come originally from Roma, — 
as well as Romulus? He wished to stand where 
Caesar stood, to behold the snowy Soracte of 
Horace, and to read Virgil's description of an 
Italian night on Italian ground. It is noticeable 
that he cared little or nothing for the splendors 
of Paris, the glittering peaks of Switzerland, 
medical-musical Vienna, or the grand scholar- 
ship and homely sweetness of old Germany. 

Of all the Anglo-Saxon writers who have 
celebrated Italy, Byron, Shelley, Rogers, Ruskin 
and the two Brownings, none were more ad- 
mirably equipped for it than Hawthorne. We 
cannot read "The Romance of Monte Beni" 
without recognizing a decidedly Italian element 
in his composition, — not the light-hearted, 
subtle, elastic, fiery Italian, such as we are 
accustomed to think them, but the tenderly 
feeling, terribly earnest Tuscan, like Dante 
and Savonarola. The myrtle and the cypress 
are both emblematic of Italian character, and 

307 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

there was more of the latter than the former, 
though something of either, in Hawthorne's 
own make-up. 

The Hawthornes left London on January 
6, and, reaching Paris the following day, they 
made themselves comfortable at the Hotel du 
Louvre. However, they only remained there 
one week, during which it was so cold that they 
saw little and enjoyed little. They went to 
Notre Dame, the Louvre, the Madeleine, and 
the Champs Elysees, but without being greatly 
impressed by what they beheld. Hawthorne 
does not mention a single painting or statue 
among the art treasures of the Louvre, which 
if rivalled elsewhere are certainly unsurpassed; 
but Hawthorne began his studies in this line by 
an examination of the drawings of the old 
masters, and confesses that he was afterward too 
much fatigued to appreciate their finished 
paintings. 

On January 19 they reached Marseilles, and 
two days later they embarked on that dreary 
winter voyage, so pleasant at an earlier season, 
for Civita Vecchia; and on the 20th they rolled 
into the Eternal City, with such sensations as 
one may imagine. On the 24th they located 
themselves for the season in the Palazzo Lara- 
zani. Via Porta Pinciana.* 

Nemo similis Homeri. — There is nothing 
like the charm of a first visit to Rome. The 
first sight of the Forum, with its single pathetic 

* Italian Note-book. 
308 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

column, brings us back to our school-days, to 
the study of Caesar and the reading of Plutarch; 
and the intervening period drops out of our 
lives, taking all our care and anxiety with it. 
In England, France, Germany, we feel the 
weight of the present, but in Rome the present 
is like a glass window through which we view 
the grand procession of past events. What is, 
becomes of less importance than what ivas, and 
for the first time we feel the true sense of our 
indebtedness to the ages that have gone before. 
We bathe deep in the spirit of classical anti- 
quity, and we come out refreshed, enlarged and 
purified. We return to the actualities of to-day 
with a clearer understanding, and better pre- 
pared to act our part in them. 

Hawthorne did not feel this at first. He ar- 
rived in inclement weather, and it was some 
weeks before he became accustomed to the 
climatic conditions — so different from any 
northern atmosphere. He hated the filth of the 
much-neglected city, the squalor of its lower 
classes, the narrowness of its streets, and the 
peculiar pavement, which, as he says makes 
walking in Rome a penitential pilgrimage. 
He goes to the carnival, and his penetrating 
glance proves it to be a sham entertainment. 

But in due course he emerges from this mood ; 
he rejoices in the atmospheric immensity of 
St. Peter's; he looks out from the Pincian hill, 
and sees Nivea Soracte as Horace beheld it ; and 
he is overawed (if Hawthorne could be) by the 
Forum of Trajan and the Column of Antoninus. 

309 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

He makes a great discovery, or rediscovery, that 
Phidias 's colossal statues of Castor and Pollux 
on the Monte Cavallo are the finest figures in 
Rome. They are late Roman copies, but prob- 
ably from Phidias, — not by Lysippus or Prax- 
iteles ; and he felt the presence of Michel Angelo 
in the Baths of Diocletian. It is not long 
before he goes to the Pincian in the after- 
noon to play at jack-stones with his youngest 
daughter. 

William W. Story, the American sculptor, 
would seem to have been a former acquaintance. 
His father, the famous law lecturer, lived in 
Salem during Hawthorne's youth, but after- 
ward removed to Cambridge, where the younger 
Story was educated, and there married an 
intimate friend of Mrs. James Russell Lowell. 
This brought him into close relations with 
Lowell, Longfellow, and their most intimate 
friends. He was something of a poet, and more 
of a sculptor, but, inheriting an independent 
fortune and living in the Barberini Palace, he soon 
became more of an Englishman than an Ameri- 
can, a tendency which was visibly increased by 
a patent of nobility bestowed on him by the 
King of Naples. 

Hawthorne soon renewed William Story's 
acquaintance, and found him modelling the 
statue of Cleopatra, of which Hawthorne has 
given a somewhat idealized description in "The 
Marble Faun. " This may have interested 
him the more from the fact that he witnessed 

310 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

its development under the sculptor's hands, 
and saw that distinguished historical person 
emerge as it were out of the clay, like a second 
Eve; but he makes a mental reservation that 
it would be better if English and American 
sculptors would make a freer use of their chisels 
— of which more hereafter. Story was a light- 
hearted, discursive person, with a large amount 
of bric-a-brac information, who could appreciate 
Hawthorne either as a genius or as a celebrity. 
He soon became Hawthorne's chief companion 
and social mainstay in Rome, literally a vade 
mecum, and we may believe that he exercised 
more or less influence over Hawthorne's judg- 
ment in matters of art. 

Hawthorne listened to Story, and read Mrs. 
Jameson, although Edward Silsbee had warned 
him against her as an uncertain authority; 
but Hawthorne depended chiefly on his own 
investigations. He and his wife declined an 
invitation to Mrs. Story's masquerade, and 
lived very quietly during this first winter in 
Rome, making few acquaintances, but seeing 
a good deal of the city. They went together 
to all the principal churches and the princely 
galleries; and beside this Hawthorne traversed 
Rome from one end to the other, and across in 
every direction, sometimes alone, or in com- 
pany with Julian, investigating everything from 
the Mamartine prison, in which Jugurtha was 
starved, to the catacombs of St. Calixtus and the 
buffaloes on the Campagna. The impression 
which Conway gives, that he went about sight- 

311 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

seeing and drinking sour wine with Story and 
Lothrop Motley, is not quite correct, for Motley 
did not come to Rome until the following Decem- 
ber, and then only met Hawthorne a few times, 
according to his own confession.* We must 
not forget, however, that excellent lady and 
skilful astronomer. Miss Maria Mitchell, who 
joined the Hawthorne party in Paris, and be- 
came an indispensable accompaniment to them 
the rest of the winter. 

Hawthorne also became acquainted with 
Buchanan Read, who afterward painted that 
stirring picture of General Sheridan galloping 
to the battle of Cedar Run; and on March 12 
Mr. Read gave a party, at his Roman dwelling, 
of painters and sculptors, which Hawthorne 
attended, and has entered in full, with the 
moonlight excursion afterward, in "The Marble 
Faun." There Hawthorne met Gibson, to 
whom he refers as the most distinguished sculptor 
of the time. So he was, in England, but there 
were much better sculptors in France and in 
Germany. Gibson's personality interested 
Hawthorne, as it well might, but he saw clearly 
that Gibson was merely a skilful imitator of 
the antique, or, as he calls him, a pagan idealist. 
He also made acquaintance with two American 
sculptors, a Yankee and a girlish young woman, 
whose names are prudently withheld; for he 
afterward visited their studios, and readily 
discovered that they had no real talent for their 
profession. 

* Mrs. Lathrop, 406. 
312 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

If we feel inclined to quarrel with Hawthorne 
anywhere, it is in his disparagement of Crawford. 
There might be two opinions in regard to the 
slavery question, but there never has been but 
one as to the greatest of American artists. It 
was a pity that his friend Hillard could not 
have been with Hawthorne at this time to 
counteract the jealous influences to which he 
was exposed. He writes no word of regret at 
the untimely death of Crawford, but goes into 
his studio after that sad event and condemns 
his work. Only the genre figure of a boy playing 
marbles, gives him any satisfaction there; 
although a plea of extenuation might be entered 
in Hawthorne's favor, for statues of heroic size 
could not be seen to greater disadvantage than 
when packed together in a studio. The immense 
buttons on the waistcoats of our revolutionary 
heroes seem to have startled him on his first 
entrance, and this may be accepted as an indica- 
tion of the rest. Yet the tone of his criticism, 
both in the "Note-book" and in "The Marble 
Faun," is far from friendly to Crawford. He 
does not refer to the statue of Beethoven, which 
was Crawford's masterpiece, nor to the statue 
of Liberty, which now poses on the lantern of 
the Capitol at Washington, — much too beautiful, 
as Hartmann says, for its elevated position, 
and superior in every respect to the French 
statue of Liberty in New York harbor. 

Hawthorne had already come to the conclu- 
sion that there was a certain degree of poison in 
the Roman atmosphere, and in April he found 

313 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

the climate decidedly languid, but he had fallen 
in love with this pagan capital and he hated to 
leave it. Mrs. Anna Jameson arrived late in 
April; a sturdy, warm-hearted Englishwoman 
greatly devoted to art, for which her books 
served as elementary treatises and pioneers to 
the English and Americans of those days. She 
was so anxious to meet Hawthorne that she 
persuaded William Story to bring him and his 
wife to her lodgings when she was too ill to go 
forth. They had read each other's writings and 
could compliment each other in all sincerity, 
for Mrs. Jameson had also an excellent narrative 
style ; but Hawthorne found her rather didactic, 
and although she professed to be able "to read 
a picture like a book," her conversation was 
by no means brilliant. She had contracted an 
unhappy marriage early in life, and found an 
escape from her sorrows and regrets in this 
elevated interest. 

It was just before leaving Rome that Haw- 
thorne conceived the idea of a romance in which 
the "Faun" of Praxiteles should come to life, 
and play a characteristic part in the modern 
world ; the catastrophe naturally resulting from 
his coming into conflict with a social organi- 
zation for which he was unfitted. This portion 
of Hawthorne's diary is intensely interesting to 
those who have walked on classic ground. 

On May 24 Hawthorne commenced his journey 
to Florence with a vetturino by easy stages, and 
one can cordially envy him this portion of his 
Italian sojourn; with his devoted wife and 

314 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

three happy children; travelling through some 
of the most beautiful scenery in the world, — 
nearly if not quite equal to the Rhineland — 
without even the smallest cloud of care and 
anxiety upon his sky, his mind stored with 
mighty memories, and looking forward with 
equal expectations to the prospect before him, — 
hella Firenze, the treasure-house of Italian 
cities ; through sunny valleys, with their streams 
and hill-sides winding seaward; up the precipi- 
tous spurs of the Apennines, with their old 
baronial castles perched like vultures' nests on 
inaccessible crags; passing through gloomy, 
tortuous defiles, guarded by Roman strong- 
holds; and then drawn up by white bullocks 
over Monte Somma, and to the mountain cities 
of Assisi and Perugia, older than Rome itself; 
by Lake Trasimenus, still ominous of the name 
of Hannibal; over hill-sides silver-gray with 
olive orchards; always a fresh view and a new 
panorama, bounded by the purple peaks on the 
horizon; and over all, the tender blue of the 
Italian sky. Hawthorne may have felt that 
his whole previous life, all he had struggled, 
lived and suffered for, was but a preparation 
for this one week of perfectly harmonious exist- 
ence. Such vacations from earthly troubles 
come but rarely in the most fortunate lives, and 
are never of long duration. 

When they reached Florence, they found it, 
as Rose Hawthorne says, very hot — much too 
hot to enjoy the city as it should be enjoyed. 
Her reminiscences of their life at Florence, and 

315 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

especially of the Villa Manteiito, have a charm- 
ing freshness and virginal simplicity, although 
written in a somewhat high-flown manner. 
She succeeds, in spite of her peculiar style, in 
giving a distinct impression of the old chateau, 
its surroundings, the life her family led there, 
and of the wonderful view from Bellosguardo. 
One feels that beneath the disguise of a fashion- 
able dress there is an innocent, sympathetic, 
and pure-spirited nature. 

The Hawthornes arrived in Florence on the 
afternoon of June 3, and spent the first night 
at the Albergo della Fontano, and the next day 
obtained apartments in the Casa del Bello, 
opposite Hiram Powers' studio, and just out- 
side of the Porta Romana. Hawthorne made 
Mr. Powers' acquaintance even before he entered 
the city, and Powers soon became to him what 
Story had been in Rome. The Brownings were 
already at Casa Guidi, — still noted in the 
annals of English poesy, — and called upon the 
Hawthornes at the first notice of their arrival. 
Alacrity or readiness would seem to have been 
one of Robert Browning's prominent charac- 
teristics. Elizabeth Browning's mind was as 
much occupied with spiritism as when Haw- 
thorne met her two years previously at Monck- 
ton Milnes's breakfast; an unfortunate pro- 
clivity for a person of frail physique and delicate 
nerves. Neither did she live very long after 
this. Her husband and Hawthorne both cor- 
dially disapproved of these mesmeric practices; 
but Mrs. Browning could not be prevented 

316 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

from talking on the subject, and this evidently 
produced an ecstatic and febrile condition of 
mind in her, very wearing to a poetic tempera- 
ment. Hawthorne heartily liked Browning 
himself, and always speaks well of him; but 
there must also have been an undercurrent of 
disagreement between him and so ardent an 
admirer of Louis Napoleon, and he recalls 
little or nothing of what Browning said to him. 
This continued till the last of June, when Robert 
and Elizabeth left Florence for cooler regions. 

Meanwhile Hawthorne occupied himself seri- 
ously with seeing Florence and studying art, 
like a man who intends to get at the root of the 
matter. Florence afforded better advantages 
than Rome for the study of art, not only from 
the superiority of its collections, but because 
there the development of mediseval art can be 
traced to its fountain-source. He had no text- 
books to guide him, — at least he does not refer 
to any, — and his investigations were conse- 
quently of rather an irregular kind, but it was 
evidently the subject which interested him 
most deeply at this time. His Note-book is full 
of it, and also of discussions on sculpture with 
Hiram Powers, in which Hawthorne has fre- 
quently the best of the argument. 

In fact Powers looked upon his art from much 
too literal a stand-point. He agreed with Haw- 
thorne as to the fine expression of the face of 
Michel Angelo's "Giuliano de' Medici,"* but 

*As Hawthorne did not prepare his diary for publication, 
it would not be fair to hold him responsible for the many 

317 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

affirmed that it was owing to a trick of over- 
shadowing the face by the projecting visor of 
Giuliano's helmet. Hawthorne did not see why- 
such a device did not come within the range of 
legitimate art, the truth of the matter being 
that Michel Angelo left the face unfinished; 
but the expression of the statue is not in its 
face, but in the inclination of the head, the posi 
tion of the arms, the heavy droop of the armor, 
and in fact in the whole figure. Powers' " Greek 
Slave," on the contrary, though finely modelled 
and sufficiently modern in type, has no definite 
expression whatever. 

Hawthorne found an exceptional interest in 
the "Venus de' Medici," now supposed to have 
been the work of one of the sons of Praxiteles, 
and its wonderful symmetry gives it a radiance 
like that of the sun behind a summer cloud; 
but Powers cooled down his enthusiasm by 
objecting to the position of the ears, the vacancy 
of the face, the misrepresentation of the inner 
surface of the lips, and by condemning particu- 
larly the structure of the eyes, which he de- 
clared were such as no human being could see 
with.* Hawthorne was somewhat puzzled by 
these subtleties of criticism, which he did not 
know very well how to answer, but he still held 
fast to the opinion that he was fundamentally 
right, and retaliated by criticising Powers' 
own statues in his diary. 

instances of bad Italian in the Note-book, which ought to 
have been edited by some one who knew the language. 
* Italian Note-book, June 13, 1858. 
318 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

The Greeks, in the best period of their 
favorite art, never attempted a literal repro- 
duction of the human figure. Certain features, 
like the nostrils, were merely indicated; others, 
like the eyelashes, often so expressive in woman, 
were omitted altogether; hair and drapery were 
treated in a schematic manner. In order to 
give an expression to the eyes, various devices 
were resorted to. The eyelids of the bust of 
Pericles on the Acropolis had bevelled edges, 
and the eyeballs of the "Apollo Belvedere" 
are exceptionally convex, to produce the effect 
of looking to a distance, although the human 
eye when gazing afar off becomes slightly con- 
tracted. The head of the "Venus de' Medici " is 
finely shaped, but small, and her features are 
pretty, rather than beautiful ; but her eyes are 
exceptional among all feminine statues for their 
tenderness of expression — swimming, as it were, 
with love; and it is the manner in which this 
effect is produced that Powers mistook for bad 
sculpture. Hiram Powers' most exceptional 
proposition was to the effect that the busts of 
the Roman emperors were not characteristic 
portraits. Hawthorne strongly dissented from 
this ; and he was in the right, for if the character 
of a man can be read from marble, it is from 
those old blocks. Hawthorne has some admirable 
remarks on this point. 

Such was Hawthorne's internal life during his 
first month at Florence. He was full of admi- 
ration for the cathedral, the equestrian statue 
of Cosmo de' Medici, the "David" of Michel 

319 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

Angelo, the Loggia de' Lanzi, Raphael's portrait 
of Julius II., the "Fates" of Michel Angelo, and 
many others; yet he confesses that the Dutch, 
French, and English paintings gave him a more 
simple, natural pleasure, — probably because their 
subjects came closer to his own experience. 

A strange figure of an old man, with " a Palmer- 
like beard," continually crossed Hawthorne's 
path, both in Rome and in Florence, where he 
dines with him at the Brownings'. His name is 
withheld, but Hawthorne informs us that he is 
an American editor, a poet; that he voted for 
Buchanan, and was rejoicing in the defeat of 
the Free-soilers, — "a man to whom the world 
lacks substance because he has not siifficiently 
cultivated his emotional nature;" and "his 
personal intercourse, though kindly, does not 
stir one's blood in the least." Yet Hawthorne 
finds him to be good-hearted, intelligent, and 
sensible. This can be no other than William 
Cullen Bryant.* 

In the evening of June 27 the Hawthornes 
went to call on a Miss Blagden, who occupied 
a villa on Bellosguardo, and where they met 
the Brownings, and a Mr. Trollope, a brother 
of the novelist. It could not have been the 
Villa Manteiito, which Miss Blagden rented, 
for we hear of her at Bellosguardo again in 
August, when Hawthorne was living there him- 
self ; and after this we do not hear of the Brown- 
ings again. 

* Italian Note-book, ii. 15. 
320 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

Hawthorne's remark on Browning's poetry 
is one of the rare instances in which he criticises 
a contemporary author : 

" I am rather surprised that Browning's con- 
versation should be so clear, and so much to the 
purpose at the moment, since his poetry can 
seldom proceed far, without running into the high 
grass of latent meanings and obscure allusions. " 

It is precisely this which has prevented 
Browning from achieving the reputation that 
his genius deserves. We wish that Hawthorne 
could have favored us with as much literary 
criticism as he has given us of art criticism, and we 
almost lose patience with him for his repeated 
canonization of General Jackson — St. Hickory — 
united with a disparagement of Washington and 
Sumner; but although Hawthorne's insight into 
human nature was wonderful in its w^ay, it 
would seem to have been confined within narrow 
boundaries. At least he seems to have pos- 
sessed little insight into grand characters and 
magnanimous natures. He wishes now that 
Raphael could have painted Jackson's portrait. 
So, conversely, Shakespeare belittles Caesar in 
order to suit the purpose of his play. Which of 
Shakespeare's male characters can be measured 
beside George Washington? There is not one 
of them, unless Kent in "King Lear." Strong, 
resolute natures, like Washington, Hamilton, 
Sumner, are not adapted to dramatic fiction, 
either in prose or in verse. 

A Florentine summer is about equal to one 
in South Carolina, and now, when Switzerland 
21 321 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

can be reached by rail in twenty-four hours, no 
American or Englishman thinks of spending 
July and August there; but in Hawthorne's 
time it was a long and expensive journey over 
the Pennine Alps; Hawthorne's physique was 
as well attempered to heat as to cold; and he 
continued to frequent the picture-galleries and 
museums after all others had ceased to do so; 
although he complains in his diary that he had 
never known it so hot before, and that the flag- 
stones in the street reflect the sun's rays upon 
him like the open doors of a furnace. 

At length, in an entry of July 27, he says: 

"I seldom go out nowadays, having already 
seen Florence tolerably well, and the streets 
being very hot, and myself having been engaged 
in sketching out a romance,* which whether 
it will ever come to anything is a point yet to 
be decided. At any rate, it leaves me little 
heart for journalizing, and describing new 
things; and six months of uninterrupted mo- 
notony would be more valuable to me just now, 
than the most brilliant succession of novelties. " 

This is the second instance in which we hear 
of a romance based on the " Faun " of Praxiteles, 
and now at last he appears to be in earnest. 

It may be suspected that his entertaining 
friend, Hiram Powers, was the chief obstacle to 
the progress of his new plot, and it is rather 
amusing to believe that it was through the 
agency of Mr. Powers, who cared for nothing so 

*"The Marble Faun." 
322 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

much as Hawthorne's welfare, that this im- 
pediment was removed. Five days later, Haw- 
thorne and his household gods, which were 
chiefly his wife and children, left the Casa del 
Bello for the Villa Manteiito where they remained 
in peaceful retirement until the first of October. 

On the tower of the Villa he could enjoy 
whatever enlivening breezes came across to 
Florence from the mountains to the north and 
east. When the tramontana blew, he was com- 
fortable enough. Thunder-storms also came 
frequently, with the roar of heaven's artillery 
reverberating from peak to peak, and enveloping 
Bellosguardo in a dense vapor, like the smoke 
from Napoleon's cannon ; after which they would 
career down the valley of the Arno to Pisa, 
flashing and cannonading like a victorious army 
in pursuit of the enemy. 

The beauty of the summer nights at Florence 
amply compensates for the sultriness of the 
days, — especially if they be moonlight nights, — 
and the bright starlight of the Mediterranean 
is little less beautiful. Travellers who only see 
Italy in winter, know not what they miss. 
Hawthorne noticed that the Italian sky had a 
softer blue than that of England and America, 
and that there was a peculiar luminous quality 
in the atmosphere, as well as a more decided 
difference between sunshine and shadow, than 
in countries north of the Alps. The atmosphere 
of Italy, Spain, and Greece is not like any Ameri- 
can air that I am acquainted with. During the 
summer season, all Italians whose occupation 

22i 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

will permit them, sleep at noon, — the laborers 
in the shadows of the walls, — and sit up late at 
night, enjoying the fine air and the pleasant 
conversation which it inspires. Hawthorne 
found the atmosphere of Tuscany favorable 
for literary work, even in August. 

On the 4th of that month he looked out from 
his castle wall late at night and noticed the 
brilliancy of the stars, — also that the Great 
Dipper exactly overhung the valley of the Arno. 
At that same hour the astronomer Donati was 
sweeping the heavens with his telescope at the 
Florentine observatory, and it may have been 
ten days later that he discovered in the handle 
of the Dipper the great comet which will 
always bear his name, — the most magnificent 
comet of modern times, only excepting that of 
1680, which could be seen at noonday. It first 
became visible to the naked eye during the last 
week of August, as a small star with a smaller 
tail, near the second star from the end of the 
handle of the Dipper; after which it grew apace 
until it extended nearly from the horizon to the 
zenith, with a tail millions of miles in length. 
This, however, did not take place until near the 
time of Hawthorne's departure from Florence. 
In his case it proved sorrowfully enough a har- 
binger of calamity. 

Hawthorne blocked out his sketch of "The 
Romance of Monte Beni" in a single month, 
and then returned to the churches and picture- 
galleries. He could not expect to revisit Italy 
in this life, and prudently concluded to make 

324 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

the most of it while the opportunity lasted. He 
notices the peculiar fatigue which sight-seeing 
causes in deep natures, and becomes unspeakably 
weary of it, yet returns to it again next day 
with an interest as fresh as before. 

Neither did he lack for society. William 
Story came over to see him from Siena, where 
he was spending the summer, exactly as Haw- 
thorne describes the visit of Kenyon to Dona- 
tello in his romance. Mr. and Mrs. Powers 
came frequently up the hill in the cool of the 
evening, and Miss Blagden also proved an ex- 
cellent neighbor. Early in September the 
"spirits" appeared again in great force. Mrs. 
Hawthorne discovered a medium in her English 
governess; table-rappings and table-tippings 
were the order of the evening; and some rather 
surprising results were obtained through Miss 
Shepard's fingers.* Powers related a still more 
surprising performance! that he had witnessed, 
which was conducted by D. D. Home, an 
American mountebank, who hoaxed more 
crowned heads, princes, princesses, and espe- 
cially English duchesses than Cagliostro him- 
self. Hawthorne felt the repugnance of the 
true artist to this uncanny business, and his 
thorough detestation of the subject commends 
itself to every sensible reader. He came to the 
conclusion that the supposed revelations of 
spirits were nothing more than the mental 



*J. Hawthorne, i. 31. 
t Italian Note-book. 

32s 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

vagaries of persons in the same room, conveyed 
in some occult manner to the brain of the me- 
dium. The governess, Miss Shepard, agreed 
with him in this, but she could give no expla- 
nation as to the manner in which the response 
came to her. Twenty years of scientific in- 
vestigations have added little or nothing to 
this diagnosis of Hawthorne's, nor are we any 
nearer to an explanation of the simple fact; 
which is wonderful enough in its way. Haw- 
thorne compares the revelations of mediums to 
dreams, but they are not exactly like them, 
for they are at the same time more rational and 
less original or spontaneous than dreams. In 
my dreams my old friends often coine back to 
me and speak in their characteristic manner, — 
more characteristic perhaps than I could rep- 
resent them when awake, — but the responses 
of mediums are either evasive or too highly 
generalized to be of any particular value. The 
story of Mary Runnel, or Rondel, which Julian 
Hawthorne narrates, is an excellent case in 
point. Hawthorne had probably heard of that 
flirtation of his grandfather some time in his 
youth, and the fact was unconsciously latent in 
his mind; but nothing that Mary divulged at 
Bellosguardo was of real interest to him or to 
the others concerned. The practice of spiritism, 
hypnotism, or Christian Science opens a wide 
door for superstition and imposture to walk in 
and seat themselves by our firesides. 

About a year before this. Congress had given 
Hiram Powers a commission to model a colossal 

326 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

statue of America for the Capitol at Washington. 
This he had done, and the committee in charge 
accepted his design, — Hawthorne also writes 
admiringly of it, — but it was also necessary to 
receive the approval of the President, and this 
Buchanan with his peculiar obstinacy refused 
to give. Powers was left without compensation 
for a whole year of arduous labor, and Haw- 
thorne for once was thoroughly indignant. 
He wrote in his diary: 

" I wish our great Republic had the spirit 
to do as much, according to its vast means, as 
Florence did for sculpture and architecture 

when it was a republic And 

yet the less we attempt to do for art the better, 
if our future attempts are to have no better 
result than such brazen troopers as the eques- 
trian statue of General Jackson, or even such 
naked respectabilities as Greeneough's Washing- 
ton. " 

Perhaps Powers' "America" was a fortunate 
escape, and yet it does not seem right that any 
enlightened government should set such a pit- 
fall for honest men to stumble into. There 
certainly ought to be some compensation in 
such cases. The experience of history hitherto 
has been that, whereas painting and literature 
have flourished under all forms of government, 
sculpture has only attained its highest excellence 
in republics like Athens, Rhodes, Florence, and 
Nuremberg; so that upon this line of argument 
there is good hope for America in the future. 



327 



CHAPTER XV 

Hawthorne as Art Critic: 1858 

Nearly one-third of the Itahan Note-book 
is devoted to the criticisms or descriptions of 
paintings, statues, and architecture, for which 
we can be only too thankful as coming from 
such a bright, penetrating, and ingenious in- 
telligence. It is much in their favor that 
Hawthorne had not previously undertaken a 
course of instruction in art ; that he wrote for his 
own benefit, and not for publication; and that 
he was not biased by preconceived opinions. 
It cannot be doubted that he was sometimes 
influenced by the opinions of Story, Powers, 
and other artists with whom he came in contact ; 
but this could have happened only in particular 
cases, and more especially in respect to modern 
works of art. When Hawthorne visited the 
galleries he usually went alone, or only accom- 
panied by his wife. 

The only opportunities for the study of aes- 
thetics or art criticism, fifty years ago, were to be 
found in German universities. Kugler's hand- 
book of painting was the chief authority in use, 
rather academic, but correct enough in a gen- 
eral way. Ruskin, a more eloquent and dis- 
criminating writer, had devoted himself chiefly 
to celebrating the merits of Turner and Tin- 
toretto, but was never quite just to Florentine 

328 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

art. Mrs. Jameson followed closely after Kug- 
ler, and was the only one of these that Haw- 
thorne appears to have consulted. Winckel- 
mann's history of Greek sculpture, which was 
not a history in the proper sense of the word, 
had been translated by Lodge, but Hawthorne 
does not mention it, and it would not have been 
much assistance to him if he had read it. Like 
Winckelmann and Lessing, however, he ad- 
mired the "Laocoon," — an admiration now 
somewhat out of fashion. 

There can be no final authority in art, for the 
most experienced critics still continue to differ 
in their estimates of the same painting or statue. 
More than this, it is safe to affirm that any one 
writer who makes a statement concerning a certain 
work of art at a given time, would have made 
a somewhat different statement at another 
time. In fact, this not unfrequently happens 
in actual practice ; for all that any of us can do 
is, to reproduce the impression made on us at 
the moment, and this depends as much on our 
own state of mind, and on our peculiarities, as 
on the peculiarities of the picture or statue that 
we criticise. It is the same in art itself. If 
Raphael had not painted the " Sistine Madonna' ' 
at the time he did, he would have produced a 
different work. It was the concentration of 
that particular occasion, and if any accident 
had happened to prevent it, that pious and 
beautiful vision would have been lost to the world. 

It requires years of study and observation 
of the best masters to become a trustworthy 

329 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

art critic, and then everything depends of course 
upon the genius of the individual. It has hap- 
pened more than once that a wealthy American, 
with a certain kind of enthusiasm for art, has 
prepared himself at a German university, has 
studied the science of connoisseurship, and has 
become associate member of a number of for- 
eign societies, only to discover at length that he 
had no talent for the profession. Hawthorne 
enjoyed no such advantages, nor did he even 
think of becoming a connoisseur. His whole 
experience in the art of design might be 
included within twelve months, and his origi- 
nal basis was nothing better than his wife's 
water-color painting and the mediocre pictures 
in the Boston Athenaeum; but he brought to 
his subject an eye that was trained to the closest 
observation of Nature and a mind experienced 
beyond all others * in the mysteries of human 
life. He begins tentatively, and as might be ex- 
pected makes a number of errors, but quite as 
often he hits the nail, where others have missed 
it. He learns by his mistakes, and steadily 
improves in critical faculty. Hawthorne's Ital- 
ian Note-book is a unique record, in which the 
development of a highly organized mind has 
advanced from small beginnings to exceptional 
skill in a fresh department of activity. 

Hawthorne brought with him to Italy the 
Yankee preference for newness and nicety, 
which our forefathers themselves derived from 

* At least at that time. 
330 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

their residence in Holland, and there is no city 
in Europe where this sentiment could have 
troubled him so much as in Rome. He dis- 
Hked the dingy picture-frames, the uncleanly 
canvases, the earth-stains and broken noses 
of the antique statues, the smoked-up walls of 
the Sistine Chapel, and the cracks in Raphael's 
frescos. He condemns everything as rubbish 
which has not an external perfection; forget- 
ting that, as in human nature, the most precious 
treasures are sometiines allied with an ungainly 
exterior. Yet in this he only echoes the impres- 
sions of thousands of others who have gone to 
the Vatican and returned disconsolate, because 
amid a perplexing multitude of objects they 
knew not where to look for consummate art. 
One can imagine if an experienced friend had 
accompanied Hawthorne to the Raphael stanza, 
and had pointed out the figures of the Pope, the 
cardinal, and the angelic boys in the "Mass at 
Bolsena," he would have admired them without 
limitation. He quickly discovered Raphael's 
"Transfiguration," and considered it the greatest 
painting that the world contains. 

The paintings in the princely collections in 
Rome are, with the exception of those in the 
Borghese gallery, far removed from princely. 
A large proportion of their best paintings had 
long since been sold to the royal collections of 
northern Europe, and had been replaced either 
by copies or by works of inferior masters. In 
the . Barberini palace there are not more than 
three or four paintings such as might reasonably 

331 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

detain a traveller, and it is about the same in 
the Ludovisi gallery. There was not a grain of 
affectation in Hawthorne; he never pretended 
to admire what he did not like, nor did he strain 
himself into liking anything that his inner na- 
ture rebelled against. 

Hawthorne's taste in art was much in ad- 
vance of his time. His quick appreciation of 
the colossal statues of Castor and Pollux on 
the Quirinal is the best proof of this. Ten years 
later it was the fashion in Rome to deride those 
statues, as a late work of the empire and greatly 
lacking in artistic style. Brunn, in his history 
of ancient sculpture, attributes them to the 
school of Lysippus, a contemporary of Alex- 
ander, which Brunn certainly would not have 
done if he had possessed a good eye for form. 
Vasari, on the contrary, a surer critic, con- 
sidered them worthy to be placed beside Michel 
Angelo's "David"; but it remained for Furtwan- 
gler to restore them to their true position as a 
work of the Periclean age, although copied by 
Italian sculptors. They must have been the 
product of a single mind,* either Phidias, Al- 
cameres, or the elder Praxiteles — if there ever 
was such a person; and they have the finest 
figures of any statues in Rome (much finer than 
the dandified "Apollo Belvedere") and also the 
most spirited action. 

Hawthorne went to the Villa Ludovisi to 
see the much- vaunted bas-relief of Antinous, 

* On the base of one is Opus PhidicB, and on that of the 
other, Opus Praxitelis. 

332 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

which fifty years ago was considered one of 
the art treasures of the city ; but a more refined 
taste has since discovered that in spite of the 
rare technical skill, its hard glassy finish gives 
it a cold and conventional effect. Hawthorne 
returned from it disappointed, and wrote in his 
diary : 

"This Antinous is said to be the finest relic 
of antiquity next to the Apollo and the Laocoon ; 
but I could not feel it to be so, partly, I suppose, 
because the features of Antinous do not seem 
to me beautiful in themselves; and that heavy, 
downward look is repeated till I am more weary 
of it than of anything else in sculpture. " 

The Greek artist of Adrian's time attempted 
to give the face a pensive expression, but only 
succeeded in this heavy downward look. 

Hawthorne felt the same disappointment 
after his first visit to the sculpture-gallery of 
the Vatican. " I must confess," he wrote, "tak- 
ing such transient glimpses as I did, I was more 
impressed with the extent of the Vatican, and 
the beautiful order in which it is kept and its 
great sunny, open courts , with fountains, grass, 
and shrubs . . . than with the statuary." The 
Vatican collection has great archaeological value, 
but, with the exception of the "Laocoon," the 
"Meleager," the "Apollo," and a few others, little 
or no artistic value. The vast majority of the 
statues there are either late Roman works or 
cheap Roman copies of second-rate Hellenic 
statues. Some of them are positively bad and 
others are archaic, and Hawthorne was fully justi- 

333 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

fied in his disatisfaction with them. He noticed, 
however, a decided difference between the original 
"Apollo" and the casts of it with which he was 
familiar. On a subsequent visit he fails to observe 
the numerous faults in Canova's " Perseus," and 
afterwards writes this original statement con- 
cerning the "Laocoon": 

" I felt the Laocoon very powerfully, though 
very quietly ; an immortal agony with a strange 
calmness diffused through it, so that it resem- 
bles the vast age of the sea, calm on account 
of its immensity; as the tumult of Niagara, 
which does not seem to be tumult, because it 
keeps pouring on forever and ever. " 

Professor E. A. Gardner and the more fas- 
tidious school of critics have recently decided 
that the action of the "Laocoon" is too violent 
to be contained within the proper boundaries 
of sculpture; but Hawthorne controverts this 
view in a single sentence. The action is violent, 
it is true, but the impression which the statue 
makes on him is not a violent one; for the 
greatness of the art sublimates the motive. It 
is a tragedy in marble, and Pliny, who had 
seen the works of Phidias and Praxiteles, placed 
Agesander's "Laocoon" above them all. 
This, however, is a Roman view. What Haw- 
thorne wrote in his diary should not always 
be taken literally. When he declares that he 
would like to have every artist that perpetrates 
an allegory put to death, he merely expresses 
the puzzling effects which such compositions 
frequently exercise on the weary-minded 

334 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

traveller ; and when he wishes that all the frescos 
on Italian walls could be obliterated, he only 
repeats a sentiment of similar strain. Perhaps 
we should class in the same category Haw- 
thorne's remark concerning the Elgin marbles 
in the British Museum, that "it would be well if 
they were converted into paving-stones." There 
are no grander monuments of ancient art than 
those battered and headless statues from the 
pediment of the Parthenon (the figures of the 
so-called "Three Fates" surpass the "Venus of 
Melos"), and archaeologists are still in dispute 
as to what they may have represented; but 
the significance of the subject before him was 
always the point in which Hawthorne was in- 
terested. Julian Hawthorne says of his father, 
in regard to a similar instance: 

"Of technicalities, — difficulties overcome, harmony of 
lines, and so forth, — he had no explicit knowledge; they 
produced their effect upon him of course, but without his 
recognizing the manner of it. All that concerned him was 
the sentiment which the artist had meant to express; the 
means and method were comparatively unimportant. " * 

The technicalities of art differ with every clime 
and every generation. They belong chiefly to 
the connoisseur, and have their value, but the 
less a critic thinks of them in making a general 
estimate of a painting or statue, the more likely 
he is to render an impartial judgment. Haw- 
thorne's analysis of Praxiteles's "Faun," in 
his "Romance of Monte Beni," being a subject 

*J. Hawthorne, ii. 193. 
335 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

in which he was particularly interested, is almost 
without a rival in the literature of its kind; 
and this is the more remarkable since the copy 
of the "Faun" in the museum of the Capitol 
is not one of the best, at least it is inferior to 
the one in the Glyptothek at Munich. It seems 
as if Hawthorne had penetrated to the first con- 
ception of it in the mind of Praxiteles. 

The Sistine Chapel, like the Italian scenery, 
only unfolds its beauties on a bright day, and 
Hawthorne happened to go there when the sky 
was full of drifting clouds, a time when it is 
dijfficult to see any object as it really is. It may 
have been on this account that he entirely mis- 
took the action of the Saviour in Michel Angelo's 
"Last Judgment." Christ has raised his arm 
above his head in order to display the mark 
where he was nailed to the cross, and Hawthorne 
presumed this, as many others have done, to be 
an angry threatening gesture of condemnation, 
which would not accord with his merciful spirit. 
He appreciated the symmetrical figure of Adam, 
and the majestic forms of the prophets and 
sibyls encircling the ceiling, and if he had seen 
the face of the Saviour in a fair light, he might 
have recognized that such divine calmness of 
expression could not coexist with a vindictive 
motive. This, however, can be seen to better 
advantage in a Braun photograph than in the 
painting itself. 

Hawthorne goes to the Church of San Pietro 
in Vincolo to see Michel Angelo's "Moses," but 
he does not moralize before it, like a certain 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

Concord artist, on "the weakness of exaggera- 
tion;" nor does he consider, like Ruskin, that 
its conventional horns are a serious detriment. 
On the contrary he finds it "grand and sublime, 
with a beard flowing down like a cataract; a 
truly majestic figure, but not so benign as it 
were desirable that such strength should hold." 
An Englishman present remarked that the 
" Moses" had very fine features, — "a compli- 
ment," says Hawthorne, "for which the colossal 
Hebrew ought to have made the Englishman 
a bow." * 

Perhaps the Englishman really meant that 
the face had a noble expression. The somewhat 
satyr-like features of the "Moses" would seem 
to have been unconsciously adopted, together 
with the horns, from a statue of the god Pan, 
which thus serves as an intermediate link be- 
tween the "Moses" and the "Faun" of Praxiteles; 
but he who cannot appreciate Michel Angelo's 
"Moses" in spite of this, knows nothing of the 
Alpine heights of human nature. 

Of all the paintings that Hawthorne saw in 
Rome none impressed him so deeply as Guido's 
portrait of Beatrice Cenci, and none more justly. 
If the "Laocoon" is the type of an old Greek 
tragedy, a strong man strangled in the coils of 
Fate, the portrait of Beatrice represents the 
tragedy of mediaeval Italy, a beautiful woman 
crushed by the downfall of a splendid civiliza- 
tion. The fate of Joan of Arc or of Madame 

* Italian Note-book, p. 164. 
22 337 



7 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

Roland was merciful compared to that of poor 
Beatrice. Religion is no consolation to her, 
for it is the Pope himself who signs her death- 
warrant. She is massacred to gratify the av- 
arice of the Holy See. Yet in this last evening 
of her tragical life, she does find strength and 
consolation in her dignity as a woman. Never 
was art consecrated to a higher purpose; Guido 
rose above himself; and, as Hawthorne says, 
it seems as if mortal man could not have wrought 
such an effect. It has always been the most pop- 
ular painting in Rome, but Hawthorne was the 
first to celebrate its unique superiority in writ- 
ing, and his discourse upon it in various places 
leaves little for those that follow. 

It may have been long since discovered that 
Hawthorne's single weakness was a weakness 
for his friends; certainly an amiable weakness, 
but nevertheless that is the proper name for it. 
When Phocibn was Archon of Athens, he said 
that a chief magistrate should know no friends; 
and the same should be true of an authoritative 
writer. Hawthorne has not gone so far in this 
direction as many others have who had less 
reason to speak with authority than he; but 
he has indicated his partiality for Franklin 
Pierce plainly enough, and his over-praise 
of Hiram Powers and William Story, as well 
as his under-praise of Crawford, will go down 
to future generations as something of an in- 
justice to those three artists. 

It is not necessary to repeat here what Haw- 
thorne wrote concerning Powers' Webster. The 

338 




GUI0O RENl S PORTRAIT OF BEATRICE CENCT, PAINTED WHILE SHE 
WAS IN PRISON, WHICH SUGGESTED TO HAWTHORNE THE PLOT 
OF " THE MARBLE FAUN " 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

statue stands in front of the State House 
at Boston, and serves as a good likeness of the 
famous orator, but more "than that one cannot 
say for it. The face has no definable expres- 
sion, and those who have looked for a central 
motive in the figure will be pleased to learn what 
it is by reading Hawthorne's description of it, 
as he saw it in Powers' studio at Florence. 
A sculptor of the present day can find no better 
study for his art than the attitudes and changes 
of countenance in an eloquent speaker ; but 
which of them can be said to have taken ad- 
vantage of this? Story made an attempt in his 
statue of Everett, but even his most indulgent 
friends did not consider it a success. His 
" George Peabody," opposite the Bank of Eng- 
land, could not perhaps have been altogether 
different from what it is. 

What chiefly interested Story in his profession 
seems to have been the modelling of unhappy 
women in various attitudes of reflection. He 
made a number of these, of which his "Cleo- 
patra" is the only one known to fame, and in 
the expression of her face he has certainly 
achieved a high degree of excellence. Neither 
has Hawthorne valued it too highly, — the ex- 
pression of worldly splendor incarnated in a 
beautiful woman on the tragical verge of an 
abyss. If she only were beautiful! Here the 
limitations of the statue commence. Haw- 
thorne says, "The sculptor had not shunned 
to give the full, Nubian lips and other char- 
acteristics of the Egyptian physiognomy." 

339 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

Here he follows the sculptor himself, and it is 
remarkable that a college graduate like William 
Story should have made so transparent a mis- 
take. Cleopatra was not an Egyptian at all. 
The Ptolemies were Greeks, and it is simply 
impossible to believe that they would have 
allied themselves with a subject and alien race. 
This kind of small pedantry has often led artists 
astray, and was peculiarly virulent during the 
middle of the past century. The whole figure 
of Story's "Cleopatra" suffers from it. Haw- 
thorne says again, "She was draped from head 
to foot in a costume minutely and scrupulously 
studied from that of ancient Egypt." In fact, 
the body and limbs of the statue are so closely 
shrouded as to deprive the work of that sense 
of freedom of action and royal abandon which 
greets us in Shakespeare's and Plutarch's "Cleo- 
patra," Story might have taken a lesson from 
Titian's matchless "Cleopatra" in the Cassel 
gallery, or from Marc Antonio's small wood- 
cut of Raphael's "Cleopatra." 

Perhaps it is not too much to say of Craw- 
ford that he was the finest plastic genius of the 
Anglo-Saxon race. His technique may not have 
been equal to Flaxman's or St. Gaudens', but 
his designs have more of grandeur than the 
former, and he is more original than the latter. 
There are faults of modelling in his "Orpheus," 
and its attitude resembles that of the eldest 
son of Niobe in the Florentine gallery, — although 
the Niobe youth looks upward and Orpheus is 
peering into darkness, — its features are rather 

340 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

too pretty; but the statue has exactly what 
Powers' "Greek Slave" lacks, a definite motive, — 
that of an earnest seeker, — which pervades it 
from head to foot ; and it is no imaginary pathos 
that we feel in its presence. There is, at least, 
no imitation of the antique in Crawford's 
"Beethoven," for its conception, the listening to 
internal harmonies, would never have occurred 
to a Greek or a Roman. Even Hawthorne 
admits Crawford's skill in the treatment of 
drapery; and this is very important, for it is 
in his drapery quite as much as in the nude 
that we recognize the superiority of Michel 
Angelo to Raphael; and the folds of Bee- 
thoven's mantle are as rhythmical as his own 
harmonies. The features lack something of 
firmness, but it is altogether a statue in the 
grand manner. 

Hawthorne is rather too exacting in his re- 
quirements of modern sculptors. Warrington 
Wood, who commenced life as a marble-worker, 
always employed Italian workmen to carve his 
statues, although he was perfectly able to do 
it himself, and always put on the finishing 
touches, — as I presume they all do. Bronze 
statues are finished with a file, and of course 
do not require any knowledge of the chisel. 

In regard to the imitation of antique atti- 
tudes, there has certainly been too much of it, 
as Hawthorne supposes; but the Greeks them- 
selves w^ere given to this form of plagiarism, 
and even Praxiteles sometimes adopted the 
motives of his predecessors; but Hawthorne 

341 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

praises Powers, Story, and Harriet Hosmer 
above their merits. 

The whole brotherhood of artists and their 
critical friends might rise up against me, if I 
were to support Hawthorne's condemnation 
of modern Venuses, and "the guilty glimpses 
stolen at hired models." They are not neces- 
sarily guilty glimpses. To an experienced artist 
the customary study from a naked figure, male 
or female, is little more than what a low-necked 
dress at a party would be to many others. 
Yet the instinct of the age shrinks from this 
exposure. We can make pretty good Venuses, 
but we cannot look at them through the same 
mental and moral atmosphere as the contem- 
poraries of Scopas, or even with the same eyes 
that Michel Angelo sav/ them. We feel the 
difference between a modern Venus and an 
ancient one. There is a statue in the Vatican 
of a Roman emperor, of which every one says 
that it ought to wear clothes; and the reason 
is because the face has such a modern look. 
A raving Bacchante may be a good acquisition 
to an art museum, but it is out of place in a public 
library, A female statue requires more or less 
drapery to set off the outlines of the figure and 
to give it dignity. We feel this even in the finest 
Greek work — like the "Venus of Cnidos." 

In this matter Hawthorne certainly exposes 
his Puritanic education, and he also places too 
high a value on the carving of button-holes and 
shoestrings by Italian workmen. Such things 
are the fag-ends of statuary. 

342 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

His judgment, however, is clear and convinc- 
ing in regard to the tinted Eves and Venuses 
of Gibson. Whatever may have been the ancient 
practice in this respect, Gibson's experiment 
proved a failure. Nobody likes those statues; 
and no other sculptor has since followed Gib- 
son's example. The tinting of statues by the 
Greeks did not commence until the time of 
Aristotle, and does not seem to have been very 
general. Their object evidently was, not so 
much to imitate flesh as to tone down the 
crystalline glare of the new marble. Pausanias 
speaks of a statue in Arcadia, the drapery of 
which was painted with vermilion, "so as to look 
very gay." This was of course the consequence 
of a late and degraded taste. That traces of 
paint should have been discovered on Greek 
temples is no evidence that the marble was 
painted when they were first built. 

It may be suspected that Hawthorne was one 
of the very few who have seen the "Venus de' 
Medici " and recognized the true significance 
of the statue. The vast majority of visitors to 
the Uffizi only see in it the type of a perfectly 
symmetrical woman bashfully posing for her 
likeness in marble, but Hawthorne's perception 
in it went much beyond that, and the fact that 
he attempts no explanation of its motive is 
in accordance with the present theory. He 
also noticed that statues had sometimes ex- 
ercised a potent spell over him, and at others 
a very slight influence. 

Froude says that a man's modesty is the best 

343 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

part of him. Notice that, ye stragglers for 
preferment, and how beautifully modest Haw- 
thorne is, when he writes in his Florentine 
diary: 

"In a year's time, with the advantage of 
access to this magnificent gallery, I think I 
might come to have some little knowledge of 
pictures. At present I still know nothing ; 
but am glad to find myself capable, at least, 
of loving one picture better than another. I 
am sensible, however, that a process is going on, 
and has been ever since I came to Italy, that 
puts me in a state to see pictures with less toil, 
and more pleasure, and makes me more fastid- 
ious, yet more sensible of beauty where I saw 
. none before. " 

1 Hawthorne belongs to the same class of 
' amateur critics as Shelley and Goethe, who, 
even if their opinions cannot always be ac- 
cepted as final, illuminate the subject with the 
radiance of genius and have an equal value 
with the most experienced connoisseurs. 



The return of the Hawthornes to Rome 
through Tuscany was even more interesting 
than their journey to Florence in the spring, 
and they enjoyed the inestimable advantage 
of a vetturino who would seem to have been the 
Sir Philip Sidney of his profession, a compen- 
dium of human excellences. There are such 
men, though rarely met with, and we may trust 
Hawthorne's word that Constantino Bacci was 

344 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

one of them; not only a skilful drive-", but a 
generous provider, honest, courteous, kindly, 
and agreeable. They went first to Siena, where 
they were entertained for a week or more 
by the versatile Mr. Story, and where Haw- 
thorne wrote an eloquent description of the 
cathedral; then over the mountain pass where 
Radicofani nestles among the iron-browed crags 
above the clouds; past the malarious Lake of 
Bolsena, scene of the miracle which Raphael has 
commemorated in the Vatican; through Viterbo 
and Sette Vene; and finally, on October i6, into 
Rome, through the Porta' del Popolo, designed 
by Michel Angelo in his massive style, — Do- 
na ti's comet flaming before them every night. 
Thompson, the portrait painter, had already 
secured a furnished house. No. 68 Piazza Poli, 
for the Hawthornes, to which they went im- 
mediately. 

Since the death of Julius Caesar, comets have 
always been looked upon as the forerunners 
of pestilence and war, but wars are sometimes 
blessings, and Donati's discovery proved a 
harbinger of good to Italy, — ^but to the Haw- 
thornes, a prediction of evil. Continually in 
Hawthorne's Italian journal we meet with 
references to the Roman malaria, as if it were 
a subject that occupied his thoughts, and no- 
where is this more common than during the 
return-journey from Florence. Did it occur 
to him that the lightning might strike in his 
own house? No sensible American now would 
take his children to Rome unless for a very 

345 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

brief visit; and yet William Story brought up 
his family there with excellent success, so far 
as health was concerned. 
J " We can believe that Hawthorne took 
every possible precaution, so far as he knew, 
but in spite of that on November i his eldest 
daughter was seized with Roman fever, and 
for six weeks thereafter lay trembling be- 
tween life and death, so that it seemed as if a 
feather might turn the balance. 

She does not appear to have been imprudent. 
Her father believed that the "old hag" breathed 
upon her while she was with her mother, who 
was sketching in the Palace of the Caesars; but 
the Palatine Hill is on high ground, with a 
foundation of solid masonry, and was guarded 
by French soldiers, and it would have been 
difficult to find a more cleanly spot in the city. 
A German count, who lived in a villa on the 
Caelian Hill, close by, considered his residence 
one of the most healthful in Rome. Miss Una 
had a passionate attachment for the capital 
of the ancient world; and it seems as if the 
evil spirit of the place had seized upon her, 
as the Ice Maiden is supposed to entrap chamois 
hunters in the Alps. 

One of the evils attendant on sickness in a 
foreign country is, the uncertainty in regard 
to a doctor, and this naturally leads to a dis- 
trust and suspicion of the one that is employed. 
Even so shrewd a man as Bismarck fell into 
the hands of a charlatan at St. Petersburg and 
suffered severely in consequence. Hawthorne 

346 



I 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

either had a similar experience, or, what came 
to the same thing, beHeved that he did. He 
considered himself obliged to change doctors 
for his daughter, and this added to his care 
and anxiety. During the next four months 
he wrote not a word in his journal (or else- 
where, so far as we know), and he visibly aged 
before his wife's eyes. He went to walk on 
occasion with Story or Thompson, but it was 
merely for the preservation of his own health. 
His thoughts were always in his daughter's 
chamber, and this was so strongly marked upon 
his face that any one could read it. Toward 
the Ides of March, Miss Una was sufficiently 
improved to take a short look at the carnival, 
but it was two months later before she was 
in a condition to travel, and neither she nor her 
father ever wholly recovered from the effects 
of this sad experience. 



347 



CHAPTER XVI 

"The Marble Faun": 1859-1860 

What the Roman carnival was a hundred and 
fifty years ago, when the Italian princes poured 
out their wealth upon it, and when it served 
as a medium for the communication of lovers 
as well as for social and political intrigue, 
which sometimes resulted in conflicts like those 
of the Montagues and Capulets, can only be 
imagined. Goethe witnessed it from a balcony 
in the Corso, and his carnival in the second 
part of "Faust" was worked up from notes 
taken on that occasion; but it is so highly 
poetized that little can be determined from 
it, except as a portion of the drama. By 
Hawthorne's time the aristocratic Italians 
had long since given up their favorite holi- 
day to English and American travellers, — 
crowded out, as it were, by the superiority of 
money; and since the advent of Victor Em- 
manuel, the carnival has become so demo- 
cratic that you are more likely to encounter 
your landlady's daughter there than any more 
distinguished person. Hawthorne's description 
of it in "The Marble Faun" is not overdrawn, 
and is one of the happiest passages in the 
book. 

The carnival of 1859 was an exceptionally 
brilliant one. The Prince of Wales attended 

348 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

it with a suite of young English nobles, who, 
always decorous and polite on public occasions, 
nevertheless infused great spirit into the pro- 
ceedings. Sumner and Motley were there, and 
Motley rented a balcony in a palace, to which 
the Hawthornes received general and repeated 
invitations. On March 7, Miss Una was driven 
through the Corso in a barouche, and the Prince 
of Wales threw her a bouquet, probably recog- 
nizing her father, who was with her; and to 
prove his good intentions he threw her another, 
when her carriage returned from the Piazza 
del Popolo. The present English sovereign 
has always been noted for a sort of journalistic 
interest in prominent men of letters, science, 
and public affairs, and it is likely that he was 
better informed in regard to the Hawthornes 
than they imagined. Hawthorne himself was 
too much subdued by his recent trial to enter 
into the spirit of the carnival, even with a heart 
much relieved from anxiety, but he sometimes 
appeared in the Motleys' balcony, and some- 
times went along the narrow sidewalk of the 
Corso, "for an hour or so among the people, 
just on the edges of the fun." Sumner invited 
Mrs. Hawthorne to take a stroll and see pictures 
with him, from which she returned delighted 
with his criticisms and erudition. 

A few days later Franklin Pierce suddenly 
appeared at No. 68 Piazza Poll, with that shadow 
on his face which was never wholly to leave 
it. The man who fears God and keeps his com- 
mandments will never feel quite alone in the 

349 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

world ; but for the man who lives on popularity, 
what will there be left when that forsakes him? 
Hawthorne was almost shocked at the change 
in his friend's appearance; not only at his gray 
hair and wrinkled brow, but at the change in 
his voice, and at a certain lack of substance in 
him, as if the personal magnetism had gone out 
of him. Hawthorne went to walk with him, 
and tried to encourage him by suggesting 
another term of the presidency, but this did 
not help much, for even Pierce's own State had 
deserted him, — a fact of which Hawthorne 
may not have been aware. The companionship 
of his old friend, however, and the manifold 
novelty of Rome itself, somewhat revived the 
ex-President, as may be imagined ; and a month 
later he left for Venice, in better spirits than 
he came. 

They celebrated the Ides of March by going 
to see Harriet Hosmer's statue of Zenobia, 
which was afterward exhibited in America. 
Hawthorne immediately detected its resem- 
blance to the antique, — the figure was in fact 
a pure plagiarism from the smaller statue of 
Ceres in the Vatican, — but Miss Hosmer suc- 
ceeded in giving the face an expression of 
injured and sorrowing majesty, which Haw- 
thorne was equally ready to appreciate. 

On this second visit to Rome he became 
acquainted with a sculptor, whose name is not 
given, but who criticised Hiram Powers with a 
rather suspicious severity. He would not allow 
Powers "to be an artist at all, or to know any- 

3SO 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

thing of the laws of art, although acknowledging 
him to be a great bust-maker, and to have put 
together the "Greek Slave" and the "Fisher- 
Boy" very ingeniously. " The latter, however 
(he says) , is copied from the Spinario in the Trib- 
une of the Uffizi; and the former made up of 
beauties that had no reference to one another; 
and he affirms that Powers is ready to sell, and 
has actually sold, the ' Greek Slave,' limb by 
limb, dismembering it by reversing the process 
of putting it together. Powers knows nothing 
scientifically of the human frame, and only 
succeeds in representing it, as a natural bone- 
doctor succeeds in setting a dislocated limb, by 
a happy accident or special providence." * 

We may judge, from "the style, the matter, 
and the drift" of this discourse, that it emanated 
from the same sculptor who is mentioned, in 
"Nathaniel Hawthorne and His Wife," as 
having traduced Margaret Fuller and her hus- 
band Count Ossoli. As Tennyson says, "A lie 
that is half a truth is ever the blackest of lies," 
and this fellow would seem to have been an 
adept in unveracious exaggeration. It is re- 
markable that Hawthorne should have given 
serious attention to such a man ; but an English 
critic said in regard to this same incident that 
if Hawthorne had been a more communicative 
person, if he had talked freely to a larger number 
of people, he would not have been so easily 
prejudiced by those few with whom he was 



* Italian Note-book, 483. 
351 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

chiefly intimate. To which it could be added, 
that he might also have taken broader views in 
regard to public affairs. 

Hawthorne was fortunate to have been present 
at the discovery of the St. Petersburg "Venus," 
the twin sister of the "Venus de' Medici," 
which was dug up in a vineyard outside the 
Porta Portese. The proprietor of the vineyard, 
who made his fortune at a stroke by the dis- 
covery, happened to select the site for a new 
building over the buried ruins of an ancient 
villa, and the "Venus" was discovered in what 
appeared to Hawthorne as an old Roman 
bath-room. The statue was in more perfect 
preservation than the "Venus de' Medici," 
both of whose arms have been restored, and 
Hawthorne noticed that the head was larger and 
the face more characteristic, with wide-open 
eyes and a more confident expression. He was 
one of the very few who saw it before it was 
transported to St. Petersburg, and a thorough 
artistic analysis of it is still one of the deside- 
rata. The difference in expression, however, 
would seem to be in favor of the "Venus de' 
Medici," as more in accordance with the ruling 
motive of the figure. 

Miss Una Hawthorne had not sufficiently 
recovered to travel until the last of May, when 
they all set forth northward by way of Genoa 
and Marseilles, in which latter place we find 
them on the 28th, enjoying the comfort and 
elegance of a good French hotel. Thence they 
proceeded to Avignon, but did not find much 

352 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

to admire there except the Rhone; so they 
continued to Geneva, the most pleasant, home- 
like resting place in Europe, but quite deficient 
in other attractions. 

It seems as if Hawthorne's Roman friends 
were somewhat remiss in not giving him better 
advice in regard to European travelling. At 
Geneva he was within a stone's throw of 
Chamounix, and hardly more than that of 
Strasburg Cathedral, and yet he visited neither. 
Why did he go out of his way to see so little 
and to miss so much ? He went across the lake 
to visit Lausanne and the Castle of Chillon, and 
he was more than astonished at the view of the 
Pennine Alps from the deck of the steamer. 
He had never imagined anything like it ; and he 
might have said the same if he had visited 
Cologne Cathedral. Instead of that, however, 
he hurried through France again, with the 
intention of sailing for America the middle of 
July; but after reaching London he concluded 
to remain another year in England, to write 
his "Romance of Monte Beni," and obtain an 
English copyright for it. 

He left Geneva on June 15, and as he turned 
his face northward, he felt that Henry Bright 
and Francis Bennoch were his only real friends 
in Great Britain. There could hardly have 
been a stronger contrast than these two. Bright 
was tall, slender, rather pale for an Englishman, 
grave and philosophical. Bennoch was short, 
plump, lively and jovial, with a ready fund of 
humor much in the style of Dickens, with whom 

23 353 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

he was personally acquainted. Yet Haw- 
thorne recognized that Bright and Bennoch 
liked him for what he was, in and of himself, 
and not for his celebrity alone. 

Bright was in London when Hawthorne 
reached there, and proposed that they should 
go together to call on Sumner,* who had been 
cured from the effects of Brooks's assault by 
an equally heroic treatment; but Hawthorne 
objected that as neither of them was Lord 
Chancellor, Sumner would not be likely to pay 
them much attention; to which Bright replied, 
that Sumner had been very kind to him in 
America, and they accordingly went. Sumner 
was kind to thousands, — the kindest as well as 
the most upright man of his time, — and no one 
in America, except Longfellow, appreciated 
Hawthorne so well; but he was the champion 
of the anti-slavery movement and the inveterate 
opponent of President Pierce. I suppose a man's 
mind cannot help being colored somewhat by 
such conditions and influences. 

Hawthorne wished for a qmet, healthful 
place, where he could write his romance without 
the disturbances that are incident to celebrity, 
and his friends recommended Redcar, on the 
eastern coast of Yorkshire, a town that other- 
wise Americans would not have heard of. 
He went there about the middle of July, remain- 
ing until the 5th of October, but of his life there 
we know nothing except that he must have 

* J. Hawthorne, ii. 223. 
354 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

worked assiduously, for in that space of time 
he nearly finished a book containing almost 
twice as many pages as "The Scarlet Letter." 
Meanwhile Mrs. Hawthorne entertained the 
children and kept them from interfering with 
their father (in his small cottage), by making 
a collection of sea-mosses, which Una and 
Julian gathered at low tides, and which their 
mother afterward dried and preserved on paper. 
On October 4th Una Hawthorne wrote to her 
aunt, Elizabeth Peabody: 

"Our last day in Redcar, and a most lovely one it is. 
The sea seems to reproach us for leaving it. But I am glad 
we are going, for I feel so homesick that I want constant 
change to divert my thoughts. How troublesome feelings 
and affections are." * 

One can see that it was a pleasant place 
even after the days had begun to shorten, 
which they do very rapidly in northern England. 
From Redcar, Hawthorne went to Leamington, 
where he finished his romance about the first of 
December, and remained until some time in 
March, living quietly and making occasional 
pedestrian tours to neighboring towns. He 
was particularly fond of the walk to Warwick 
Castle, and of standing on the bridge which 
crosses the Avon, and gazing at the walls of 
the Castle, as they rise above the trees — "as 
fine a piece of English scenery as exists any- 
where ; the gray towers and long line of windows 
of the lordly castle, with a picturesquely varied 

* Mrs. Lathrop, 35 a. 

355 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

outline; ancient strength, a little softened by 
decay." It is a view that has often been 
sketched, painted and engraved. 

The romance was written, but had to be 
revised, the least pleasant portion of an author's 
duties, — unless he chooses to make the index 
himself. This required five or six weeks longer, 
after which Hawthorne went to London and 
arranged for its publication with Smith & 
Elder, who agreed to bring it out in three vol- 
umes — although two would have been quite 
sufficient; but according to English ideas, the 
length of a work of fiction adds to its importance. 
Unfortunately, Smith & Elder also desired to 
cater to the more prosaic class of readers by 
changing the name of the romance from "The 
Marble Faun" to "Transformation," and they 
appear to have done this without consulting 
Hawthorne's wishes in the matter. It was 
simply squeezing the title dry of all poetic 
suggestions; and it would have been quite as 
appropriate to change the name of "The Scarlet 
Letter" to "The Clergyman's Penance," or to 
call "The Blithedale Romance" "The Suicide 
of a Jilt." If Smith & Elder considered "The 
Marble Faun" too recondite a title for the 
English public, what better name could they 
have hit upon than "The Romance of Monte 
Beni"? Would not the Count of Monte Beni 
be a cousin Italian, as it were, to the Count of 
Monte Cristo? We are thankful to observe that 
when Hawthorne published the book in America, 
he had his own way in regard to this point. 

356 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

It was now that a new star was rising in the 
literary firmament, not of the "shooting" or 
transitory species, and the genius of Marian 
Evans (George Eliot) was casting its genial 
penetrating radiance over Great Britain and 
the United States. She was as difficult a person 
to meet with as Hawthorne himself, and they 
never saw one another; but a friend of Mr. 
Bennoch, who lived at Coventry, invited the 
Hawthornes there in the first week of February 
to meet Bennoch and others, and Marian 
Evans would seem to have been the chief subject 
of conversation at the table that evening. 
What Hawthorne gathered concerning her on 
that occasion he has preserved in this compact 
and discriminating statement: 

"Miss Evans (who wrote 'Adam Bede') 
was the daughter of a steward, and gained her 
exact knowledge of English rural life by the 
connection with which this origin brought her 
with the farmers. She was entirely self-educated, 
and has made herself an admirable scholar in 
classical as well as in modern languages. Those 
who knew her had always recognized her won- 
derful endowments, and only watched to see 
in what way they would develop themselves. 
She is a person of the simplest manners and 
character, amiable and unpretending, and 

Mrs. B spoke of her with great affection 

and respect. " 

There is actually more of the real George 
Eliot in this summary than in. the three volumes 
of her biography by Mr. Cross. 

357 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

Thorwaldsen's well-known simile in regard to 
the three stages of sculpture, the life, the death 
and the resurrection, also has its application 
to literature. The manuscript is the birth of 
an author's work, and its revision always seems 
like taking the life out of it ; but when the proof 
comes, it is like a new birth, and he sees his 
design for the first time in its true proportions. 
Then he goes over it as the sculptor does his 
newly-cast bronze, smoothing the rough places 
and giving it those final touches which serve 
to make its expression clearer. Hawthorne 
was never more to be envied than while correct- 
ing the proof of "The Marble Faun" at Leam- 
ington. The book was given to the public at 
Easter- time; and there seems to have been 
only one person in England that appreciated 
it, even as a work of art — ^John Lothrop Motley. 
The most distinguished reviewers wholly failed 
to catch the significance of it; and even Henry 
Bright, while warmly admiring the story, ex- 
pressed a dissatisfaction at the conclusion of 
it, — although he could have found a notable 
precedent for that in Goethe's "Wilhelm 
Meister." The Saturday Review, a publication 
similar in tone to the New York Nation, said 
of ' ' Transformation : " * 

"A mystery is set before us to unriddle; at the end 
the author turns round and asks us what is the good 
of solving it. That the impression of emptiness and un- 
meaningness thus produced is in itself a blemish to the 
work no one can deny. Mr. Hawthorne really trades upon 

* J. Hawthorne, ii. 250. 
358 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

the honesty of other writers. We feel a sort of interest in 
the story, slightly and sketchily as it is told, because 
our experience of other novels leads us to assume that, 
when an author pretends to have a plot, he has one." 

The Art Journal said of it: * 

"We are not to accept this book as a story; in that 
respect it is grievously deficient. The characters are 
utterly untrue to nature and to fact; they speak, all 
and always, the sentiments of the author; their words also 
are his; there is no one of them for which the world has 
furnished a model." 

And the London AthencEum saidif 

"To Mr. Hawthorne truth always seems to arrive through 
the medium of the imagination. . . . His hero, the Count 
of Monte Beni, would never have lived had not the Faun 
of Praxiteles stirred the author's admiration. . . . The 
other characters, Mr. Hawthorne must bear to be told, 
are not new to a tale of his. Miriam, the mysterious, 
with her hideous tormentor, was indicated in the Zeno- 
bia of 'The Blithedale Romance.' Hilda, the pure and 
innocent, is own cousin to Phoebe in 'The House of the 
Seven Gables'." 

If the reviewer is to be reviewed, it is not 
too much to designate these criticisms as miser- 
able failures. They are not even well written. 
Henry Bright seemed to be thankful that they 
were no worse, for he wrote to Hawthorne: 
"I am glad that sulky Athencsum was so civil; 
for they are equally powerful and unprincipled." 
The writer in the AthencEum evidently belonged 
to that class of domineering critics who have 

* J. Hawthorne, ii. 249. 
t Ibid., ii. 244. 

359 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

no literary standing, but who, like bankers' 
clerks, arrogate to themselves all the importance 
of the establishment with which they are con- 
nected. Fortunately, there are few such in 
America. No keen-witted reader would ever 
confound the active, rosy, domestic Phcebe 
Pyncheon with the dreamy, sensitive, and 
strongly subjective Hilda of " The Marble Faun ; " 
and Hawthorne might have sent a communi- 
cation to the AthencBum to refresh the reviewer's 
memory, for it was not Zenobia in "The Blithe- 
dale Romance" who was dogged by a mysteri- 
ous persecutor, but her half-sister — Priscilla. 
Shakespeare's Beatrice and his Rosalind are 
more alike (for Brandes supposes them to have 
been taken from the same model) than Zenobia 
and Miriam; and the difference between the 
persecutors of Priscilla and Miriam, as well as 
their respective methods, is world-wide; but 
there are none so blind as those who are en- 
veloped in the turbid medium of their self- 
conceit. 

The pure-hearted, chivalrous Motley read 
these reviews, and wrote to Hawthorne a 
vindication of his work, which must have seemed 
to him like a broad belt of New England sun- 
shine in the midst of the London fog. In 
reference to its disparagement by so-called 
authorities, Motley said:* 

"I have said a dozen times that nobody can write 
EngHsh but you. With regard to the story which has been 

* Mrs. Lathrop, 408. 
360 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

slightingly criticised, I can only say that to me it is quite 
satisfactory. I like those shadowy, weird, fantastic, Haw- 
thornesque shapes flitting through the golden gloom which 
is the atmosphere of the book. I like the misty way in 
which the story is indicated rather than revealed. The 
outlines are quite definite enough, from the beginning to 
the end, to those who have imagination enough to follow 
you in your airy flights; and to those who complain — 

"I beg your pardon for such profanation, but it really 
moves my spleen that people should wish to bring down 
the volatile figures of your romance to the level of an every- 
day novel. It is exactly the romantic atmosphere of the book 
in which I revel." 

The calm face of Motley, with his classic 
features, rises before us as we read this, illumined 
as it were by "the mild radiance of a hidden 
sun." He also had known what it was to be 
disparaged by English periodicals; and if it 
had not been for Froude's spirited assertion in 
his behalf, his history of the Dutch Republic 
might not have met with the celebrity it de- 
served. He was aware of the difference between 
a Hawthorne and a Reade or a Trollope, and 
knew how unfair it would be to judge Haw- 
thorne even by the same standard as Thackeray, 
He does not touch in this letter on the phil- 
osophical character of the work, although that 
must have been evident to him, for he had said 
enough without it; but one could wish that he 
had printed the above statement over his own 
name, in some English journal. 

American reviewers were equally puzzled 
by "The Marble Faun," and, although it was 
generally praised here, the literary critics treated 
it in rather a cautious manner, as if it contained 

361 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

material of a dangerous nature. The North 
American, which should have devoted five or 
six pages to it, gave it less than one; praising 
it in a conventional and rather unsympathetic 
tone. Longfellow read it, and wrote in his 
diary, "A wonderful book; but with the old, 
dull pain in it that runs through all Hawthorne's 
writings." There was always something of 
this dull pain in the expression of Hawthorne's 
face. 

Analysis of "The Marble Faun" 

It is like a picture, or a succession of pictures, 
painted in what the Italians call the sfumato, 
or "smoky" manner. The book is pervaded 
with the spirit of a dreamy pathos, such as 
constitutes the mental atmosphere of modern 
Rome ; not unlike the haze of an Indian summer 
day, which we only half enjoy from a foreboding 
of the approach of winter. All outlines are 
softened and partially blurred in it, as time and 
decay have softened the outlines of the old 
Roman ruins. We recognize the same style 
with which we are familiar in "The Scarlet 
Letter," but influenced by a change in Haw- 
thorne's external impressions. 

It is a rare opportunity when the work of a 
great writer can be traced back to its first 
nebulous conception, as we trace the design of a 
pictorial artist to the first drawing that he made 
for his subject. Although we cannot witness 
the development of the plot of this romance in 
Hawthorne's mind, it is much to see in what 

362 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

manner the different elements of which it is 
composed, first presented themselves to him, 
and how he adapted them to his purpose. 

The first of these in order of time was the 
beautiful Jewess, whom he met at the Lord 
Mayor's banquet in London; who attracted him 
by her tout ensemble, but at the same time 
repelled him by an indefinable impression, a 
mysterious something, that he could not analyze. 
There would seem, however, to have been another 
Jewess connected with the character of Miriam; 
for I once heard Mrs. Hawthorne narrating a 
story in which she stated that she and her hus- 
band w6re driving through London in a cab, and 
passing close to the sidewalk in a crowded street 
they saw a beautiful woman, with black hair and 
a ruddy complexion, walking with the most 
ill-favored and disagreeable looking Jew that 
could be imagined; and on the woman's face 
there was an expression of such deep-seated 
unhappiness that Hawthorne and his wife 
turned to each other, and he said, " I think that 
woman's face will always haunt me." I did not 
hear the beginning of Mrs. Hawthorne's tale, 
but I always supposed that it related to "The 
Marble Faun," and it would seem as if the 
character of Miriam was a composite of these 
two daughters of Israel, uniting the enigmatical 
quality of one with the unfortunate companion- 
ship of the other, and the beauty of both. 

As previously noticed, the portrait of Beatrice 
Cenci excited a deeply penetrating interest in 
Hawthorne, and his reflections on it day after 

363 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

day would naturally lead him to a similar design 
in regard to the romance which he was con- 
templating. The attribution of a catastrophe 
like Beatrice's to either of the two Jewesses, 
would of course be adventitious, and should 
be considered in the light of an artistic 
privilege. 

The "Faun" of Praxiteles in the museum of 
the Capitol next attracted his attention. This 
is but a poor copy of the original; but he pene- 
trated the motive of the sculptor with those 
deep-seeing eyes of his, and there is no analysis 
of an ancient statue by Brunn or Furtwangler 
that equals Hawthorne's description of this one. 
It seems as if he must have looked backward 
across the centuries into the very mind of 
Praxiteles, and he was, in fact, the first critic 
to appreciate its high value. The perfect ease 
and simple beauty of the figure belong to a 
higher grade of art than the Apollo Belvedere, 
and Hawthorne discovered what Winckelmann 
had overlooked. He immediately conceived the 
idea of bringing the faun to life, and seeing 
how he would behave and comport himself in 
the modern world — in brief, to use the design 
of Praxiteles as the mainspring of a romance. 
In the evening of April 22, 1858, he wrote in 
his journal: 

" I looked at the Faun of Praxiteles, and was 
sensible of a peculiar charm in it; a sylvan 
beauty and homeliness, friendly and wild at 
once. It seems to me that a story, with all 
sorts of fun and pathos in it, might be contrived 

364 




STATUE OF PRAXITELES RESTING FAUN, WHICH HAWTHORNE HAS 
DESCRIBED AND BROUGHT TO LIFE IN THE CHARACTER OF DONA- 
TELLO 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

on the idea of their species having become 
intermingled with the human race; a family 
with the faun blood in them, having prolonged 
itself from the classic era till our own days. 
The tail might have disappeared, by dint of 
constant intermarriages with ordinary mortals; 
but the pretty hairy ears should occasionally 
reappear in members of the family; and the 
moral instincts and intellectual characteristics 
of the faun might be most picturesquely brought 
out, without detriment to the human interest 
of the story. " 

This statue served to concentrate the various 
speculative objects which had been hovering 
before Hawthorne's imagination during the past 
winter, and when he reached Florence six weeks 
later, the chief details of the plot were already 
developed in his mind. 

Hilda and Kenyon are, of course, subordinate 
characters, like the first walking lady and the 
first walking gentleman on the stage. They are 
the sympathetic friends who watch the progress 
of the drama, continually hoping to be of service, 
but still finding themselves powerless to prevent 
the catastrophe. It was perhaps their unselfish 
interest in their mutual friends that at length 
taught them to know each other's worth, so 
that they finally became more than friends to 
one another. True love, to be firmly based, 
requires such a mutual interest or common 
ground on which the parties can meet, — some- 
thing in addition to the usual attraction of the 
sexes. 

365 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

Mrs. Hawthorne has been supposed by some 
to have been the original of Hilda ; and by others 
her daughter Una. 

Conway holds an exceptional opinion, that 
Hilda was the feminine counterpart of Hawthorne 
himself; but Hilda is only too transparent a 
character, while Hawthorne always was, and 
still remains, impenetrable; and there was 
enough of her father in Miss Una, to render 
the same objection applicable in her case. Hilda 
seems to me very much like Mrs. Hawthorne, 
as one may imagine her in her younger days; 
like her in her mental purity, her conscientious- 
ness, her devotion to her art, — which we trust 
afterwards was transformed into a devotion 
to her husband, — her tendency to self-seclu- 
sion, her sensitiveness and her lack of decisive 
resolution. She is essentially what they call 
on the stage an ingenue character; that is, 
one that remains inexperienced in the midst 
of experience; and it is in this character 
that she contributes to the catastrophe of the 
drama. 

If Hawthorne appears anywhere in his own 
fiction, it is not in "The Blithedale Romance," 
but in the role of Kenyon. Although Kenyon's 
profession is that of a sculptor, he is not to be 
confounded with the gay and versatile Story. 
Neither is he statuesque, as the English reviewer 
criticised him. He is rather a shadowy character, 
as Hawthorne himself was shadowy, and as 
an author always must be shadowy to his 
readers; but Kenyon is to Hawthorne what 

366 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

Prospero is to Shakespeare, and if he does not 
make use of magic arts, it is because they no 
longer serve their purpose in human affairs. 
He is a wise, all-seeing, sympathetic mind, and 
his active influence in the play is less conspicuous 
because it is always so quiet, and so correct. 

It will be noticed that the first chapter and 
the last chapter of this romance have the same 
title: "Miriam, Hilda, Kenyon, Donatello." 
This is according to their respective ages and 
sexes; but it is also the terms of a proportion, 
— as Miriam is to Hilda, so is Kenyon to Dona- 
tello. As the experienced woman is to the 
inexperienced woman, so is the experienced man 
to the inexperienced man. This seems simple 
enough, but it has momentous consequences 
in the story. Donatello, who is a type of natural 
but untried virtue, falls in love with Miriam, 
not only for her beauty, but because she has 
acquired that worldly experience which he 
lacks. Hilda, suddenly aroused to a sense of 
her danger in the isolated life she is leading, 
accepts Kenyon as a protector. The means in 
this proportion come together and unite, be- 
cause they are the mean terms, and pursue a 
medium course. The extremes fly apart and are 
separated, simply because they are extremes. 
But there is a spiritual bond between them, 
invisible, but stronger than steel, which will 
bring them together again — at the Day of 
Judgment, if not sooner. 

All tragedy is an investigation or exempli- 
fication of that form of human error which we 

367 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

call sin ; a catastrophe of nature or a simple error 
of judgment may be tragical, but will not 
constitute a tragedy without the moral or poetic 
element. 

In "The Scarlet Letter," we have the sin of 
concealment and its consequences. The first 
step toward reformation is confession, and 
without that, repentance is little more than a 
good intention. 

In "The House of the Seven Gables," Haw- 
thorne has treated the sin of hypocrisy — a 
smiling politician who courts popularity and 
pretends to be everybody's friend, and agrees 
with everybody, — only with a slight reservation. 
There may be occasions on which hypocrisy 
is a virtue ; but the habit of hypocrisy for personal 
ends is like a dry rot in the heart of man. 

In "The Blithedale Romance," we find the 
sin of moral affectation. Neither Hollingsworth 
nor Zenobia is really what they pretend them- 
selves to be. Their morality is a hollow shell, 
and gives way to the first effective temptation. 
Zenobia betrays Priscilla; and is betrayed in 
turn by Hollingsworth, — as well as the interests 
of the association which had been committed 
to his charge. 

The kernel of "The Marble Faun" is original 
sin. It is a story of the fall of man, told again in 
the light of modern science. It is a wonderful 
coincidence that almost in the same months that 
Hawthorne was writing this romance, Charles 
Darwin was also finishing his work on the 
"Origin of Species;" for one is the moral coun- 

368 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

terpart of the other. Hawthorne did not read 
scientific and philosophical books, but he may- 
have heard something of Darwin's undertaking 
in England, as well as Napoleon's prophetic 
statement at St. Helena, that all the animals 
form an ascending series, leading up to man.* 
The skeleton of a prehistoric man discovered 
in the Neanderthal cave, which was supposed 
to have proved the Darwinian theory, does not 
suggest a figure similar to the "Faun" of 
Praxiteles, but the followers of Darwin have 
frequently adverted to the Hellenic traditions 
of fauns and satyrs in support of their theory. 
Hawthorne, however, has made a long stride 
beyond Darwin, for he has endeavored to 
reconcile this view of creation with the Mosaic 
cosmogony; and it must be admitted that he 
has be3n fairly successful. The lesson that 
Hawthorne teaches is, that evil does not reside 
in error, but in neglecting to be instructed by 
our errors. It is this which makes the difference 
between a St. Paul and a Nero. The fall of man 
was only apparent; it was really a rise in life. 
The Garden of Eden prefigures the childhood of 
the human race. Do we not all go through this 
idyllic moral condition in childhood, learning 
through our errors that the only true happiness 
consists in self-control ? Do not all judicious par- 
ents protect their children from a knowledge of 
the world's wickedness, so long as it is possible to 
prevent it, — and yet not too long, for then they 

* Dr. O'Meara's "A Voice from St. Helena." 
24 369 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

would become unfitted for their struggle with 
the world, and in order to avoid the pitfalls of 
mature life they must know where the pitfalls 
are. It is no longer essential for the individual 
to pass through the Cain and Abel experience — 
that has been accomplished by the race as a 
whole; but it is quite possible to imagine an 
incipient condition of society in which the 
distinction of justifiable homicide in self-defence 
(which is really the justification of war between 
nations) has not yet obtained. 

Hawthorne's Donatello is supposed to belong, 
in theory at least, to that primitive era; but it 
is not necessary to go back further than the 
feudal period to look for a man who never has 
known a will above his own. Donatello seizes 
Miriam's tormentor and casts him down the 
Tarpeian Rock, — from the same instinct, or 
clairvoyant perception, that a hound springs at 
the throat of his master's enemy. When the 
deed is done he recognizes that the punishment 
is out of all proportion to the offence, — which 
is in itself the primary recognition of a penal 
code, — and more especially that the judgment of 
man is against him. He realizes for the first 
time the fearful possibilities of his nature, and 
begins to reflect. He is a changed person; and 
if not changed for the better yet with a pos- 
sibility of great improvement in the future. 
His act was at least an unselfish one, and it 
might serve as the argument for a debate, 
whether Donatello did not do society a service in 
ridding the earth of such a human monstrosity. 

370 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

Hawthorne has adjusted the moral balance of 
his case so nicely, that a single scruple would 
turn the scales. 

The tradition among the Greeks and Romans, 
of a Golden Age, corresponds in a manner to the 
Garden of Eden of Semitic beHef. There may- 
be some truth in it. Captain Speke, while ex- 
ploring the sources of the Nile, discovered in 
central Africa a negro tribe uncontaminated by 
European traders, and as innocent of guile as 
the antelopes upon their own plains; and this 
suggests to us that all families and races of men 
may have passed through the Donatello stage 
of existence. 

Hawthorne's master-stroke in the romance is 
his description or analysis of the effect produced 
by this homicide on the different members of 
the group to which he has introduced us. The 
experienced and worldly-wise Kenyon is not 
informed of the deed until his engagement to 
Hilda, but he has sufficient reason to suspect 
something of the kind from the simultaneous 
disappearance of Donatello and the model, as 
well as from the sudden change in Miriam's 
behavior. Yet he does not treat Donatello with 
any lack of confidence. He visits him at his 
castle of Monte Beni, which is simply the Villa 
Manteiito somewhat idealized and removed 
into the recesses of the Apennines; he consoles 
him in his melancholy humor; tries to divert 
him from gloomy thoughts; and meanwhile 
watches with a keen eye and friendly solicitude 
for the denouement of this mysterious drama. 

371 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

If he had seen what Hilda saw, he would probably 
have left Rome as quickly as possible, never to 
return; and Donatello's fate might have been 
different. 

The effect on the sensitive and inexperienced 
Hilda was like a horrible nightmare. She cannot 
believe her senses, and yet she has to believe 
them. It seems to her as if the fiery pit has 
yawned between her and the rest of the human 
race. Her position is much like that of Hamlet, 
and the effect on her is somewhat similar. She 
thrusts Miriam from her with bitterness; yet 
forms no definite resolutions, and does she knows 
not what ; until, overburdened by the conscious- 
ness of her fatal secret, she discloses the affair 
to an unknown priest in the church of St. Peter. 
Neither does she seem to be aware at any time 
of the serious consequences of this action. 

Miriam, more experienced even than Kenyon, 
is not affected by the death of her tormentor so 
much directly as she is by its influence on 
Donatello. Hitherto she had been indifferently 
pleased by his admiration for her; now the 
tables are turned and she conceives the very 
strongest attachment for him. She follows him 
to his castle in disguise, dogs his footsteps on 
the excursion which he and Kenyon make 
together, shadows his presence again in Rome, 
and is with him at the moment of his arrest. 
This is all that we know of her from the time of 
her last unhappy interview w4th Hilda. Her 
crime consisted merely in a look, — the expression 
of her eyes, — and the whole world is free to her; 

2>n 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

but her heart is imprisoned in the same cell 
with Donatello. There is not a more powerful 
ethical effect in Dante or Sophocles. 

A certain French writer * blames Hilda severely 
for her betrayal of Miriam (who was at least 
her best friend in Rome), and furthermore 
designates her as an immoral character. This, 
we may suppose, is intended for a hit at New 
England Puritanism; and from the French 
stand-point, it is not unfair. Hilda represents 
Puritanism in its weakness and in its strength. 
It is true, what Hamlet says, that "conscience 
makes cowards of us all," but only true under 
conditions like those of Hamlet, — desperate 
emergencies, which require exceptional expedi- 
ents. On the contrary, in carrying out a great 
reform like the abolition of slavery, the educa- 
tion of the blind, or the foundation of national 
unity, a man's conscience becomes a tower of 
strength to him. As already intimated, what 
Hilda ought to have done was, to leave Rome 
at once, and forever ; but she is no more capable 
of forming such a resolution, than Hamlet was 
of organizing a conspiracy against his usurping 
uncle. When, however, the priest steps out 
from the confessional-box and attempts to make 
a convert of Hilda, — for which indeed she has 
given him a fair opening, — she asserts herself 
and her New England training, with true 
feminine dignity, and in fact has decidedly the 
best of the argument. It is a trying situation, 

* Name forgotten, but the fact is indelible - 
2>72, 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

in which she develops unexpected resources. 
Hawthorne's genius never shone forth more 
brilliantly than in this scene at St. Peter's. 
It is Shakespearian. 

Much dissatisfaction was expressed when 
"The Marble Faun" was first published, at the 
general vagueness of its conclusion. Haw- 
thorne's admirers wished especially for some 
clearer explanation of Miriam's earlier life, and 
of her relation to the strange apparition of the 
catacombs. He answered these interrogatories 
in a supplementary chapter which practically 
left the subject where it was before — an additional 
piece of mystification. In a letter to Henry 
Bright he admitted that he had no very definite 
scheme in his mind in regard to Miriam's previous 
history, and this is probably the reason why 
his readers feel this vague sense of dissatisfaction 
with the plot. I have myself often tried to 
think out a prelude to the story, but without 
any definite result. Miriam's persecuting model 
was evidently a husband who had been forced 
upon her by her parents, and would not that be 
sufficient to account for her moods of gloom and 
despondency? Yet Hawthorne repeatedly inti- 
mates that there was something more than this. 
Let us not think of it. If the tale was not 
framed in mystery, Donatello would not seem 
so real to us. Do not the characters in " Don 
Quixote" and "Wilhelm Meister" spring up as 
it were out of the ground ? They come we know 
not whence, and they go we know not whither. 
It is with these that "The Marble Faun" should 

374 




TORRE MEDIAVALLE DELLA SCIMMIA (hILDa's TOWER ) , ON THE VIA POR- 
TOGHESE AT ROME, WHERE HAWTHORNE REPRESENTS HILDA TO HAVE LIVED 
AND TENDED THE LAMP AT THE VIRGIN's SHRINE ON THE TOP OF THE 
TOWER 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

be classed and compared, and not with "Middle- 
march," "Henry Esmond," or "The Heart of 
Midlothian." 

Goethe said, while looking at the group of the 
"Laocoon," "I think that young fellow on the 
right will escape the serpents." This was not 
according to the story Virgil tells, but it is 
true to natural history. Similarly, it is pleasant 
to think that the Pope's mercy may ultimately 
have been extended to Donatello. We can 
imagine an aged couple living a serious, retired 
life in the castle of Monte Beni, childless, and to 
a certain extent joyless, but taking comfort in 
their mutual affection, and in acts of kindness 
to their fellow-mortals. 

In order to see Hilda's tower in Rome, go 
straight down from the Spanish Steps to the 
Corso, turn to the right, and you will soon come 
to the Via Portoghese (on the opposite side), 
where you will easily recognize the tower on the 
right hand. The tower is five stories in height, 
set in the front of the palace, and would seem to 
be older than the building about it; the relic, 
perhaps, of some distinguished mediaeval struc- 
ture. The odd little shrine to the Virgin, a 
toy-like affair, still surmounts it ; but its lamp 
is no longer burning. It was fine imagination 
to place Hilda in this lofty abode. 



375 



CHAPTER XVII 

Homeward Bound: 1860-1862 

There is no portion of Hawthorne's life 
concerning which we know less than the four 
years after his return from England to his 
native land. He was so celebrated that every 
eye was upon him; boys stopped their games 
to see him pass by, and farmers stood still in 
the road to stare at him. He was Hawthorne 
the famous, and every movement he made 
was remembered, every word spoken by him 
was recorded or related, and yet altogether it 
amounts to little enough. Letters have been 
preserved in number, — many of his own and 
others from his English friends, and those from 
his wife to her relatives; but they do not add 
much to the picture we have already formed in 
our minds of the man. As he said somewhere, 
fame had come too late to be a satisfaction to 
him, but on the contrary more of an annoyance. 
Hawthorne left Leamington the last of March, 
and transferred his family to Bath, which he 
soon discovered to be the pleasantest English 
city he had lived in yet, — symmetrically laid 
out, like a Continental city, and bmlt for the 
most part of a yellowish sandstone, not unlike 
in appearance the travertine of w^hich St. Peter's 
at Rome is built. The older portion of the 
city lies in a hollow among the hills, like an 

376 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

amphitheatre, and the more recent additions 
rise upon the hill-sides above it to a consider- 
able height. This is the last note of enthusiasm 
in his writings; and in the next entry in his 
diary, which was written at Lothrop Motley's 
house, Hertford Street, London, May i6, he 
makes this ominous confession: "I would gladly 
journalize some of my proceedings, and describe 
things and people, but I find the same coldness 
and stiffness in my pen as always since our 
return to England." It is only too evident 
that from this time literary composition, which 
had been the chief recreation of his youth, and 
in which he had always found satisfaction until 
now, was no longer a pleasure to him. It is 
the last entry in his journal, at least for more 
than two years, and whatever writing he ac- 
complished in the mean time was done for the 
sake of his wife and children. Dickens had a 
similar experience the last year of his life. 
Clearly, Hawthorne's nervous force was waning. 
On May 15, Hawthorne and Motley were 
invited to dine by Earl Dufferin, that admi- 
rable diplomat and one of the pleasantest of 
men. In fact, if there was a person living who 
could make Hawthorne feel perfectly at his 
ease, it was Dufferin. Motley provided some 
entertainment or other for his guest every day, 
and Hawthorne confessed that the stir and 
activity of London life were doing him " a won- 
derful deal of good." What he seems to have 
needed at this time was a vigorous, objective 
employment that would give his circulation a 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

start in the right direction; but how was he to 
obtain that? 

He enjoyed one last stroll with Henry Bright 
through Hyde Park and along the Strand, 
and found time to say a long farewell to Francis 
Bennoch: the last time he was to meet either 
of them on this side of eternity. 

He returned to Bath the ist of June, and 
ten days later they all embarked for Boston, — 
as it happened, by a pleasant coincidence, with 
the same captain with whom they had left 
America seven years before. Mrs. Hawthorne's 
sister, Mrs. Horace Mann, prepared their house 
at Concord for their reception, and there they 
arrived at the summer solstice. 

The good people of Concord had been 
mightily stirred up that spring, by an attempt 
to arrest Frank B. Sanborn and carry him 
forcibly to Washington, — contrary to law, as 
the Supreme Court of the State decided the 
following day. The marshal who arrested 
him certainly proceeded more after the manner 
of a burglar than of a civil officer, hiding 
himself with his posse comitatus in a barn 
close to Sanborn's school-house, watching his 
proceedings through the cracks in the boards, 
and finally arresting him at night, just as he 
was going to bed; but the alarm was quickly 
sounded, and the whole male population of the 
place, including Emerson, turned out like a 
swarm of angry hornets, and the marshal and 
his posse were soon thankful to escape with 
their bones in a normal condition. A few nights 

378 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

later, the barn, which was owned by a promi- 
nent official in the Boston Custom House, was 
burned to the ground (the fire-company assist- 
ing), as a sacrifice on the altar of personal 
liberty. 

The excitement of this event had not yet 
subsided when the arrival of the Hawthorne 
family produced a milder and more amiable, 
but no less profound, sensation in the old 
settlement; and this was considerably increased 
by the fact that for the first month nothing was 
seen of them, except a sturdy-looking boy 
fishing from a rock in Concord River, opposite 
the spot where his father and Channing had 
discovered the unfortunate school-mistress. Old 
friends made their calls and were cordially 
received, but Hawthorne himself did not appear 
in public places; and it was soon noticed that 
he did not take the long walks which formerly 
carried him to the outer limits of the town. 
He was sometimes met on the way to Walden 
Pond, either alone or in company with his son; 
but Bronson Alcott more frequently noticed 
him gliding along in a ghost-like manner by 
the rustic fence which separated their two 
estates, or on the way to Sleepy Hollow. When 
the weather became cooler he formed a habit 
of walking back and forth on the hill-side 
above his house, where the bank descends 
sharply like a railroad-cut, with dwarf pines and 
shrub oaks on the further side of it. He wore a 
path there, which is described in " Septimius 
Felton, " and it is quite possible that the first 

379 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

inception of that story entered his mind while 
looking down upon the Lexington road beneath 
him, and imagining how it appeared while filled 
with marching British soldiers. 

About July lo, i860, the scholars of Mr. 
Sanborn's school, male and female, gave an 
entertainment in the Town Hall, not unlike 
Harvard Class Day. Mrs. Hawthorne and her 
eldest daughter appeared among the guests, 
and attracted much attention from the quiet 
grace and dignity of their manners; but there 
was an expression of weariness on Miss Una's 
face, which contrasted strangely with the happy, 
blithesome looks of the school-girls. Some 
idea of the occasion may be derived from a 
passing remark of Mrs. Hawthorne to a Harvard 
student present: "My daughter will be happy 
to dance with you, sir, if I can only find her." 

In September Hawthorne wrote to James T. 
Fields : * 

"We are in great trouble on account of our 
poor Una, in whom the bitter dregs of that 
Roman fever are still rankling, and have now 
developed themselves in a way which the 
physicians foreboded. I do not like to write 
about it, but will tell you when we meet. Say 
nothing. " 

Miss Una was evidently far from well, and her 
father's anxiety for her sensibly affected his 
mental tone. 

He was invited at once to join the Saturday 
Club, popularly known at that time as the 

*Mrs. J. T. Fields, 118. 
380 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

Atlantic Club, because its most conspicuous 
members were contributors to that periodical. 
Hawthorne did not return in season to take 
part in the Club's expedition to the Adirondack 
Mountains, concerning which Doctor Holmes 
remarked that, considering the number of rifles 
they carried, it was fortunate that they all 
returned alive. The meetings of the Club came 
but once a month, and as the last train to Con- 
cord was not a very late one. Judge Hoar had 
his carryall taken down to Waltham on such 
occasions, and thence he, with Hawthorne and 
Emerson, drove back to Concord through the 
woods in the darkness or moonlight; and Haw- 
thorne may have enjoyed this as much as any 
portion of the entertainment. 

A club whose membership is based upon 
celebrity reminds one rather of a congregation 
of stags, all with antlers of seven tines. There 
was every shade of opinion, political, philo- 
sophical and religious, represented in the Satur- 
day Club, and if they never fought over such 
subjects it was certainly much to their credit. 
Very little has been divulged of what took 
place at their meetings; but it is generally 
known that in the winter of 1861 Longfellow 
was obliged to warn his associates that if they 
persisted in abusing Sumner he should be obliged 
to leave their company; Sumner being looked 
upon by the Democrats and more timid Re- 
publicans as the chief obstacle to pacification; 
as if any one man could prop a house up when it 
was about to fall. After the War began, this 

381 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

nattirally came to an end, and Sumner was 
afterwards invited to join the Club, with what 
satisfaction to Hoar, Lowell, and Holmes it 
might be considering rather curiously to inquire. 
We can at least feel confident that Hawthorne 
had no share in this. He did not believe in 
fighting shadows, and he at least respected 
Sumner for his frankness and disinterestedness. 

Such differences of opinion, however, are not 
conducive to freedom of discussion. Henry 
James, Sr., lifts the veil for a moment in a letter 
to Emerson, written about this time,* and 
affords us a picture of Hawthorne at the Satur- 
day Club, which might bear the designation of a 
highly-flavored caricature. According to Mr. 
James, John M. Forbes, the Canton millionaire, 
preserved the balance at one end of the table, 
while Hawthorne, an oasis in a desert, served as 
the nearest approach to a human being, at the 
other. " How he buried his eyes in his plate 
and ate with such a voracity ! that no one should 
dare to ask him a question." 

We do not realize the caricaturist in Henry 
James, Jr., so readily, on account of his elastic 
power of expression; but the relationship is 
plain and apparent. Both father and son ought 
to have been baptized in the Castalian Fount. 
There are those who have been at table with both 
Hawthorne and the elder James, and without 
the slightest reflection on Mr. James, have con- 

* Memoir of Bronson Alcott ; also the ' ' Hawthorne 
Centenary." 

382 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

fessed their preference for the quiet composure 
and simple dignity of Hawthorne. In truth 
Hawthorne's manners were above those of the 
poHshed courtier or the accomplished man of 
fashion: they were poetic manners, and in this 
respect Longfellow most nearly resembled him 
of all members of the Club; although Emerson 
also had admirable manners and they were 
largely the cause of his success. It would have 
done no harm if Emerson had burned this letter 
after its first perusal, but since it is out of the 
bag we must even consider it as it deserves. 

Hawthorne must have enjoyed the meetings of 
the Club or he would not have attended them 
so regularly. He wrote an account of the first 
occasion on which he was present, giving an 
accurate description of the dinner itself and 
enclosing a diagram of the manner in which 
the guests were seated, but without any com- 
mentary on the proceedings of the day. It 
was, after all, one of the nerve-centres of the 
great world, and an agreeable change from the 
domestic monotony of the Wayside. Thackeray 
would have descried rich material for his pen in 
it, but Hawthorne's studies lay in another direc- 
tion. Great men Vv^ere not his line in literature. 

Meanwhile Mrs. Hawthorne and her daughter 
were transforming their Concord home into a 
small repository of the fine arts. Without much 
that would pass by the title of elegance, they 
succeeded in giving it an unpretentious air of 
refinement, and one could not enter it without 
realizing that the materials of a world-wide 

383 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

culture had been brought together there. Haw- 
thorne soon found the dimensions of the house 
too narrow for the enlarged views which he had 
brought with him from abroad, and he designed 
a tower to be constructed at one corner of it, 
similar to, if not so lofty as that of the Villa 
Manteiito. This occupied him and the dila- 
tory Concord carpenter for nearly half a year; 
and meanwhile chaos and confusion reigned 
supreme. There was no one whose ears could 
be more severely offended by the music of the 
carpenter's box and the mason's trowel than 
Hawthorne, and he knew not whether to fly 
his home or remain in it. Not until all this 
was over could he think seriously of a new 
romance. 

He made his study in the upper room of the 
tower; a room exactly twenty feet square, 
with a square vaulted ceiling and five windows, 
— too many, one would suppose, to produce 
a pleasant effect of light, — and walls papered 
light yellow. There he could be as quiet and 
retired as in the attic of his Uncle Robert Man- 
ning's house in Salem. Conway states that he 
wrote at a high desk, like Longfellow, and 
walked back and forth in the room while thinking 
out what he was going to say. The view from 
his windows extended across the meadows to 
Walden woods and the Fitchburg railroad 
track, and it also commanded the Alcott house 
and the road to Concord village. It was in this 
work-shop that he prepared "Our Old Home" 
for the press and wrote the greater part of 

384 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

"Septimius Felton" and "The Dolliver Ro- 
mance. " 

The War was a new source of distraction. 
It broke out before the tower was finished, 
stimulating Hawthorne's nerves, but disturbing 
that delicate mental equilibrium upon which 
satisfactory procedure of his writing depended. 
On May 26, 18 61, he wrote to Horatio Bridge: 

"The war, strange to say, has had a beneficial 
effect upon my spirits, which were flagging 
wofully before it broke out. But it was delight- 
ful to share in the heroic sentiment of the time, 
and to feel that I had a country, — a conscious- 
ness which seemed to make me young again. 
One thing as regards this matter I regret, and 
one thing I am glad of. The regrettable thing 
is that I am too old to shoulder a musket 
myself, and the joyful thing is that Julian is 
too young. " * 

Hawthorne's patriotism was genuine and 
deep-seated. He was not the only American 
whom the bombardment of Fort Sumter had 
awakened to the fact that he had a country. 
What we have always enjoyed, we do not think 
of until there is danger of losing it. In the 
same letter, he confesses that he does not quite 
understand "what we are fighting for, or what 
definite result can be expected. If we pummel 
the South ever so hard, they will love us none 
the better for it; and even if we subjugate 
them, our next step should be to cut them adrift." 

* J. Hawthorne, ii. 276. 
25 385 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

There were many in those times who thought 
and felt as Hawthorne did. Douglas said in 
the Senate, " Even if you coerce the Southern 
States and bring them back by force, it will 
not be the same Union." A people does not 
necessarily mean a nation; for the idea of 
nationality is of slow growth, and is in a manner 
opposed to the idea of democracy; for if the 
right of government depends on the consent of 
the governed, the primary right of the governed 
must be to abrogate that government whenever 
they choose to do so. Hawthorne was simply a 
consistent democrat; but time has proved the 
fallacy of Douglas's statement, and that a 
forcible restoration of the Union was entirely 
compatible with friendliness and mutal good-will 
between the different sections of the country, — 
after slavery, which was the real obstacle to 
this, had been eliminated. If the States east 
of the AUeghanies should attempt to separate 
from the rest of the nation, it would inevitably 
produce a war similar to that of 1861. 

Hawthorne even went to the length at this 
time of proposing to arm the negroes, and pre- 
paring them "for future citizenship by allowing 
them to fight for their own liberties, and educat- 
ing them through heroic influences."* When 
George L. Stearns was organizing the colored 
regiments in Tennessee in 1863 he wrote con- 
cerning his work, in almost exactly these terms; 
and the inference is plain that Hawthorne 

* The "Hawthorne Centenary," 197. 
386 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

might have been more of a humanitarian if 
his early associations had been different. 

Such an original character as Bronson Alcott 
for a next-door neighbor could not long escape 
Hawthorne's penetrating glance. Alcott was 
an interesting personality, perfectly genuine, 
frank, kindly and imperturbably good-humored. 
He had a benevolent aspect, and in general 
appearance so much resembled the portraits of 
Benjamin Franklin that his ingenious daughters 
made use of him in charades and theatricals 
for that purpose. Hawthorne had known him 
many years earlier, and had spoken very pleas- 
antly of him in his first publication of "The 
Hall of Fantasy." He even said, "So calm 
and gentle was he, so quiet in the utterance of 
what his soul brooded upon, that one might 
readily conceive his Orphic Sayings to well up 
from a fountain in his breast, which commu- 
nicated with the infinite abyss of thought," 
— rather an optimistic view for Hawthorne. 
Alcott 's philosophy had the decided merit, 
which Herbert Spencer's has not, of a strong 
affirmation of a Great First Cause, and our 
direct responsibility thereto: but it was chiefly 
the philosophy of Plotinus; and his constant 
reiteration of a "lapse" in human nature from 
divine perfection (which was simply the Dona- 
tello phase expressed in logic), with the various 
corollaries deduced from it, finally became as 
wearisome as the harp with a single string. 
Whether he troubled Hawthorne in that way, 

387 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

is rather doubtful, for even as a hobby-rider, 
Alcott. was a man of Yankee shrewdness and 
considerable tact. Rose Hawthorne says that 
"he once brought a particularly long poem to 
read aloud to my mother and father ; a seemingly 
harmless thing from which they never recovered." 
What poem this could have been I have no idea, 
but in his later years Alcott wrote some excel- 
lent poetry, and those who ought to know do 
not think that he bored Hawthorne very se- 
verely. They frequently went to walk together, 
taking Julian for a make-weight, and Hawthorne 
could easily have avoided this if he had chosen. 
There are times for all of us when our next-door 
neighbors prove a burden; and it cannot be 
doubted that in most instances this is reciprocal.* 
Alcott was a romance character of exceptional 
value, and Hawthorne recognized this, but did not 
succeed in inventing a plot that would suit the 
subject. The only one of Hawthorne's pre- 
paratory sketches given to the public — in which 
we see his genius in the "midmost heat of com- 
position" — supposes a household in which an 
old man keeps a crab-spider for a pet, a deadly 
poisonous creature; and in the same family 
there is a boy whose fortunes will be mysteri- 
ously affected in some manner by this dangerous 

* Rose Hawthorne, however, writes charmingly of the 
Alcotts. Take this swift sketch, among others: "I imagine 
his sHghtly stooping, yet tall and well-grown figure, clothed 
in black, and with a picturesque straw hat, twining itself in 
and out of forest aisles, or craftily returning home with 
gargoyle-like stems over his shoulders." 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

insect. He did not proceed sufficiently to in- 
dicate for us how this would turn out, but he 
closes the sketch with the significant remark, 
"In person and figure Mr. Alcott"; from which 
it may be inferred that the crab-spider was 
intended to symbolize Alcott's philosophy, and 
the catastrophe of the romance would naturally 
result from the unhealthy mental atmosphere 
in which the boy grew up, — a catastrophe 
which in Alcott's family was averted by the 
practical sagacity of his daughters. The idea, 
however, became modified in its application. 
It is with regret that we do not allot a larger 
space to this important sketch, for it is clearly 
an original study (like an artist's drawing) of 
the unfinished romance which was published 
in 1883 under the title of "Doctor Grimshawe's 
Secret." Long lost sight of in the mass of 
Hawthorne's manuscripts, this last of his post- 
humous works was reviewed by the critics 
with some incredulity, and Lathrop had the 
hardihood to publicly assert that no such ro- 
mance by Hawthorne's pen existed, thereby 
casting a gratuitous slander on his own brother- 
in-law. We may have our doubts in regard to 
the authorship of Shakespeare's plays, for we 
have no absolute standard by which to judge of 
Shakespeare's style, but the "style, the matter, 
and the drift" of "Doctor Grimshawe's Secret" 
are so essentially Hawthornish that a person 
experienced in judging of such matters should 
not hesitate long in deciding that it belongs 
in the same category with "Fanshawe" and 

389 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

"The Dolliver Romance." It is even possible 
to determine, from certain peculiarities in its 
style, the exact period at which it was written; 
which must have been shortly after Hawthorne's 
return from Europe. In addition to this, if 
further evidence were required, its close rela- 
tionship to the aforementioned sketch is a 
fact which no sophistry can reason away.* 

The bloody footstep suggested to Hawthorne 
by the antediluvian print in the stone step at 
Smithell's Hall, in Lancashire, serves as the 
key-note of this romance; but the eccentric 
recluse, the big crab-spider, the orphaned grand- 
child, and even Bronson Alcott also appear in 
it. Alcott, however, — and his identity cannot 
be mistaken, — does not play the leading part 
in the piece, but comes in at the fifth chapter, 
only to disappear mysteriously in the eighth; 
the orphan boy is companioned by a girl of 
equal age, and these two bright spirits, mutually 
sustaining each other, cast a radiance over the 
old Doctor in his dusty, frowsy, cobwebby study, 
which brings out the external appearance and 
internal peculiarities of the man, in the most 
vivid manner. The dispositions and appear- 
ances of the two children are also contrasted, 
as Raphael might have drawn and contrasted 
them, if he had painted a picture on a similar 
subject. 

The crab-spider is one of the most horrible 
of Nature's creations. Hawthorne saw one in 

* This sketch was published in the Century, January, 
1883. 

390 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

the British Museum and it seems to have haunted 
his imagination ever afterward. Why the 
creature should have been introduced into this 
romance is not very clear, for it plays no part 
in the development of the plot. The spider 
hangs suspended over the old Doctor's head 
like the sword of Damocles, and one would ex- 
pect it to descend at the proper moment in the 
narrative, and make an end of him with its 
nippers; but Doctor Grimshawe dies a com- 
paratively natural death, and the desiccated 
body of the spider is found still clinging to the 
web above him. The man and the insect were 
too closely akin in the modes and purposes of 
their lives for either to outlast the other. There 
is nothing abnormal in the fact of Doctor Grim- 
shawe's possessing this dangerous pet; for all 
kinds of poisonous creatures have a well-known 
fascination for the medical profession. Doctor 
Holmes amused himself with a rattlesnake. 

In spite of its unpleasant associations with 
spiders and blood-stains, " Doctor Grimshawe 's 
Secret" is one of the most interesting of Haw- 
thorne's works, containing much of his finest 
thought and most characteristic description. 
The portrait of the grouty old Doctor himself 
has a solidity of impast like Shakespeare's 
Falstaff, and the grave-digger, who has sur- 
vived from colonial times, carries us back in- 
voluntarily to the burial scene in "Hamlet." 
Alcott, whose name is changed to Colcord, is 
not treated realistically, but rather idealized 
in such kindly sympathetic manner as might 

391 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

prevent all possibility of offence at the artistic 
theft of his personality. The plot, too, is a 
most ingenious one, turning and winding like 
a hare, and even diving out of sight for a time ; 
but only to reappear again, as the school-master 
Colcord does, with a full and satisfactory ex- 
planation of its mysterious course. To judge 
from the appearance of the manuscript, this 
romance was written very rapidly, and there 
are places in the text which intimate this; but 
it vies in power with "The Scarlet Letter," 
and why Hawthorne should have become dis- 
satisfied with it, — why he should have failed 
to complete, revise, and publish it — can only 
be accounted for by the mental or nervous 
depression which was now fastening itself upon 
him. 

It is noticeable, however, that where the 
plot is transferred to English ground Hawthorne's 
writing has much the same tone and quality 
that we find in "Our Old Home." External 
appearances seem to impede his insight there; 
but this is additional proof of the authenticity 
of the work.* 

Shortly after the battle of Bull Run Haw- 
thorne went with his boy to recuperate at 
Beverly Farms, leaving his wife and daughters 
at the Wayside, and the letters which passed 
between these two divisions of the family, 

♦There are many other evidences; such as, "after-dinner 
speeches on the necessity of friendly relations between 
England and the United States," and "the whistling of 
the railway train, two or three times a day. '! 

392 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

during his absence, give some very pretty 
glimpses of their idylHc summer life. Mrs. 
Hawthorne "cultivated her garden," and gave 
drawing lessons to the neighbors' children, 
while her husband, forty miles away, was fishing 
and bathing. The Beverly shore has not a 
stimulating climate, but is very attractive in 
summer to those who do not mind a few sultry 
nights from land breezes. It was near enough to 
Salem for Hawthorne to revive the reminiscences 
of his youth (which become more and more 
precious after the age of fifty), without obtrud- 
ing himself on the gaze of his former townsmen 
or of the young lady "who wished she could 
poison him."* It is to be hoped that he saw 
something of his sister Elizabeth again, the last 
remnant of his mother's household, who for 
some inscrutable reason had never visited him 
at Concord. 

We note here a curious circumstance ; namely, 
that Hawthorne appears to have lost the art 
of writing short sketches. It will be recollected 
that twenty years earlier he did not feel equal 
to anything beyond this, and that it cost him 
a strenuous effort to escape from the habit. 
Now when he would have liked to return to 
that class of composition he could not do so. 
Fields would have welcomed anything from his 
pen (so severe a critic he was of himself) , but 
his name does not appear in the Atlantic Monthly 
from July, 1861, to June, 1862, and it cannot 

* W. D. Howells' Memoirs. 
393 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

be doubted that with the education of his son 
before him, the remuneration would have been 
welcome. It was not until nearly a year later 
that he conceived the idea of cutting his English 
Note-book into sections, and publishing them 
as magazine articles. 

From this time forth, one discouragement 
followed another. In the autumn of 1861 the 
illness of his daughter, which he had expected 
and predicted, came to pass in a violent form. 
The old Roman virus, kept under in her blood, 
for a time, by continual changes of air and 
climate, at last gained the mastery, and brought 
her once more in danger of her life. She had 
to be removed to the house of her aunt, Mrs. 
Mann, who lived in the centre of the town, on 
account of her father's nerves, so that the 
Concord doctor could attend her at night when 
necessary. It was the severest and most pro- 
tracted case of fever that the physician had ever 
known to be followed by a recovery. Miss Una 
did recover, but the mental strain upon her 
father was even more exhausting than that 
which her previous illness had caused, and he 
was not in an equal condition to bear it. 

"Septimius Felton" may have been written 
about this time (perhaps during his daughter's 
convalescence), but his family knew nothing 
of it, until they discovered the manuscript after 
his death. When it was published ten years 
later, the poet Whittier spoke of it as a failure, 
and Hawthorne would seem to have considered 
it so; for he left it in an unfinished condition, 

394 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

and immediately began a different story on the 
same theme, — the elixir of life. It has no con- 
nection with the sketch already mentioned, 
in which Alcott's personality becomes the 
mainspring, but with another abortive romance, 
called "The Ancestral Footstep," which Haw- 
thorne commenced while he was in England. 
It is invaluable for the light it throws on his 
method of working. Descriptive passages are 
mentioned in it " to be inserted" at a later time, 
meanwhile concentrating his energy on more 
important portions of the narrative. Half 
way through the story he changed his original 
plan, transforming the young woman who 
previously had been Septimius's sweetheart to 
Septimius's sister; and it may have been the 
difficulty of adjusting this change to the portion 
previously written, that discouraged Hawthorne 
from completing the romance. But the work 
suffers also from a tendency to exaggeration. 
The name of Hagburn is unpleasantly realistic, 
and Doctor Portsoaken, with his canopy of 
spider-webs hanging in noisome festoons above 
his head, is closely akin to the repulsive. The 
amateur critic who averred that he could not 
read Hawthorne without feeling a sensation 
as if cobwebs were drawn across his face, must 
have had "Septimius Felton" in mind. Yet 
there are refreshing passages in it, and the 
youthful English officer who kisses Septimius's 
sweetheart before his eyes, and afterward fights 
an impromptu duel with him, dying as cheerfully 
as he had lived, is an orginal and charming 

395 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

character. The scene of the story has a peculiar 
interest, from the fact that it is laid at Haw- 
thorne's own door; the Feltons are supposed 
to have lived at the Wayside and the Hagburns 
in the Alcott house. 

The firm of Ticknor & Fields now began to 
feel anxious on Hawthorne's account, and the 
last of the winter the senior partner proposed 
a journey to Washington, which was accordingly 
accomplished in the second week of March. 
Horatio Bridge was now chief of a bureau in 
the Navy Department, and was well qualified 
to obtain for his veteran friend an inside position 
for whatever happened to be going on. In the 
midst of the turmoil and excitement of war, 
Hawthorne attracted as much attention as 
the arrival of a new ambassador from Great 
Britain. Secretary Stanton appointed him on a 
civil commission to report concerning the con- 
dition of the Army of the Potomac. He was 
introduced to President Lincoln, and made 
excursions to Harper's Ferry and Fortress 
Monroe. Concerning General McClellan, he 
wrote to his daughter on March 1 6 : 

"The outcry opened against Gen. McClellan, 
since the enemy's retreat from Manassas, is 
really terrible, and almost universal; because 
it is found that we might have taken their 
fortifications with perfect ease six months ago, 
they being defended chiefly by wooden guns. 
Unless he achieves something wonderful within 
a week, he will be removed from command, 
at least I hope so; I never did more than half 

396 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

believe in him. By a message from the State 
Department, I have reason to think that there 
is money enough due me from the government 
to pay the expenses of my journey. I think 
the public buildings are as fine, if not finer, 
than anything we saw in Europe. " * 

General McClellan was not a great man, and 
Hawthorne's opinion of him is more significant 
from the fact that at that time McClellan was 
expected to be the Joshua who would lead the 
Democratic party out of its wilderness. On 
his return to Concord, Hawthorne prepared a 
commentary on what he had seen and heard 
at the seat of war, and sent it to the Atlantic 
Monthly ; but, although patriotic enough, his 
melancholy humor was prominent in it, and 
Fields particularly protested against his refer- 
ring to President Lincoln as "Old Abe," al- 
though the President was almost universally 
called so in Washington; and the consequence 
of this was that Hawthorne eliminated every- 
thing that he had written about Lincoln in his 
account, — which might be called "dehamletiz- 
ing" the subject. In addition to this he wrote a 
number of foot-notes purporting to come from 
the editor, but really intended to counteract 
the unpopularity of certain statements in the 
text. This was not done with any intention 
to deceive, but, with the exception of Emerson 
and a few others who could always recognize 
Hawthorne's style, the readers of the Atlantic 

* J. Hawthorne, ii. 309. 
397 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

supposed that these foot-notes were written 
by either James T. Fields or James Russell 
Lowell, who had been until recently the editor 
of the Magazine, — a practical joke which Haw- 
thorne enjoyed immensely when it was discovered 
to him. 

This contribution, essay, or whatever it may 
be called, had only a temporary value, but it 
contained a prediction, which has been often 
recollected in Hawthorne's favor; namely, that 
after the war was over "one bullet-headed 
general after another would succeed to the 
presidential chair." In fact, five generals, 
whether bullet-headed or not, followed after 
Lincoln and Johnson ; and then the sequence 
came to an end apparently because the supply 
of politician generals was exhausted. Cer- 
tainly the Anglo-Saxon race yields to no other 
in admiration for military glory. 

Fields afterward published Hawthorne's mon- 
ograph on President Lincoln, and, although it 
is rather an unsympathetic statement of the 
man, it remains the only authentic pen-and-ink 
sketch that we have of him. Most important 
is his recognition of Lincoln as "essentially a 
Yankee ' ' in appearance and character ; for it 
has only recently been discovered that Lincoln 
was descended from an old New England family, 
and that his ancestors first emigrated to Virginia 
and afterward to Kentucky.* Hawthorne says 
of him: 

* Essay on Lincoln in "True Republicanism.'! 
398 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

"If put to guess his calling and livelihood, I 
should have taken him for a country school- 
master as soon as anythii g else.* He was 
dressed in a rusty black frock-coat and panta- 
loons, unbrushed, and worn sc faithfully that 
the suit had adapted itself to the curves and 
angularities of his figure, and had grown to be 
the outer skin of the man. He iiad shabby 
slippers on his feet. His hair was black, still 
unmixed with gray, stiff, somewhat bushy, 
and had apparently been acquainted with 
neither brush nor comb that morning, after the 
disarrangement of the pillow ; and as to a night- 
cap. Uncle Abe probably knows nothing of such 
effeminacies. His complexion is dark and sallow, 
betokening, I fear, an insalubrious atmosphere 
around the White House; he has thick black 
eyebrows and impending brow ; his nose is large, 
and the lines about his mouth are very strongly 
defined. 

"The whole physiognomy is as coarse a one 
as you would meet anywhere in the length and 
breadth of the States ; but, withal, it is redeemed, 
illuminated, softened, and brightened by a 
kindly though serious look out of his eyes, 
and an expression of homely sagacity, that 
seems weighted with rich results of village 
experience. A great deal of native sense; no 
bookish cultivation, no refinement; honest at 
heart, and thoroughly so, and yet, in some 
sort, sly, — at least, endowed with a sort of tact 

* The country school-master of that time. — Ed. 
399 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

and wisdom that are akin to craft . . . But 
on the whole, I liked this sallow, queer, saga- 
cious visage, with the homely human sympathies 
that warmed it; and, for my small share in the 
matter, would as lief have Uncle Abe for a 
ruler as any man whom it would have been 
practicable to put in his place. " * 

This is not a flattered portrait, like those by 
Lincoln's political biographers; neither is it 
an idealized likeness, such as we may imagine 
him delivering his Gettysburg Address. It is 
rather an external description of the man, but 
it is, after all, Lincoln as he appeared in the 
White House to the innumerable visitors, who, 
as sovereign American citizens, believed they 
had a right to an interview with the people's 
distinguished servant. 

Hawthorne's European letter-bag in 1862 is 
chiefly interesting for Henry Bright's state- 
ment that the English people might have more 
sympathy with the Union cause in the War 
if they could understand clearly what the 
national government was fighting for; and that 
Lord Houghton and Thomas Hughes were the 
only two men he had met who heartily supported 
the Northern side. Perhaps Mr. Bright would 
have found it equally as difficult to explain 
why the British Government should have made 
war upon Napoleon for twelve consecutive years. 

Henry Bright, moreover, seemed to be quite as 
much interested in a new American poet, named 

* " Yesterdays with Authors," 99. 
400 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

J. G. Holland, and his poem called " Bitter- 
Sweet. " Lord Houghton agreed with him that 
it was a very remarkable poem, and they wished 
to know what Hawthorne could tell them about 
its author. As Holland was not recognized as 
a poet by the Saturday Club, Hawthorne's 
answer on this point would be very valuable 
if we could only obtain a sight of it. Holland 
was in certain respects the counterpart of 
Martin F. Tupper. 

In the summer of this year Hawthorne went 
to West Goldsboro', Maine, an unimportant 
place opposite Mount Desert Island, taking 
Julian with him; a place with a stimiilating 
climate but a rather foggy atmosphere. He 
must have gone there for his health, and it is 
pathetic to see how the change of climate braced 
him up at first, so that he even made the com- 
mencement of a new diary, and then, as always 
happens in such cases, it let him down again 
to where he was before. He did not complain, 
but he felt that something was wrong with him 
and he could not tell what it was. 

Wherever he went in passing through the 
civilized portion of Maine, he found the country 
astir with recruits who had volunteered for 
the war, so that it seemed as if that were the 
only subject which occupied men's minds. 
He says of this in his journal: 

" I doubt whether any people was ever 
actuated by a more genuine and disinterested 
public spirit; though, of course, it is not un- 
alloyed with baser motives and tendencies. 
26 401 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

We met a train of cars with a regiment or two 
just starting for the South, and apparently 
in high spirits. Everywhere some insignia of 
soldiership were to be seen, — ^bright buttons, 
a red stripe down the trousers, a military cap, 
and sometimes a round-shouldered bumpkin 
in the entire uniform. They require a great 
deal to give them the aspect of soldiers ; indeed, 
it seems as if they needed to have a good deal 
taken away and added, like the rough clay of a 
sculptor as it grows to be a model. " 

Such is the last entry in his journal. Haw- 
thorne was not carried off his feet by the ex- 
citement of the time, but looked calmly on 
while others expended their patriotism in hur- 
rahing for the Union. What he remarks con- 
cerning the volunteers was perfectly true 
Men cannot change their profession in a day, 
and soldiers are not to be made out of farmers' 
boys and store clerks simply by clothing them 
in uniform, no matter how much courage they 
may have. War is a profession like other 
professions, and requires the severest training of 
them all. 



402 



CHAPTER XVIII 

Immortality 

In the autumn of 1862 there was great excite- 
ment in Massachusetts. President Lincoln had 
issued his premonitory proclamation of emanci- 
pation, and Harvard College was stirred to its 
academic depths. Professor Joel Parker, of 
the Law School, pronounced Lincoln's action 
unconstitutional, subversive of the rights of 
property, and a most dangerous precedent. With 
Charles Eliot Norton and other American Tories, 
Parker headed a movement for the organization 
of a People's Party, which had for its immediate 
object the defeat of Andrew for Governor and 
the relegation of Sumner to private life. The 
first they could hardly expect to accomplish, 
but it was hoped that a sufficient number of 
conservative representatives would be elected 
to the Legislature to replace Sumner by a 
Republican, who would be more to their own 
minds; and they would be willing to compro- 
mise on such a candidate as Honorable E. R. 
Hoar, — although Judge Hoar was innocent of 
this himself and was quite as strongly anti- 
slavery as Simmer. The movement came to 
nothing, as commonly happens with political 
movements that originate in universities, but 
for the time being it caused a great commotion 
and nowhere more so than in the town of Con- 

403 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

cord. Emerson was never more emphatic than 
in demanding the re-election of Andrew and 
Sumner. 

How Hawthorne felt about this and how he 
voted in November, can only be conjectured 
by certain indications, slight, it is true, but all 
pointing in one direction. As long since ex- 
plained, he entertained no very friendly feeling 
toward the Cotton Whigs; his letter to his 
daughter concerning Gen. McClellan, who set 
himself against the proclamation and was re- 
moved in consequence, should be taken into 
consideration; and still more significant is the 
letter to Horatio Bridge, in which Hawthorne 
proposed the enlistment of negro soldiers. 
Doctor George B. Loring, of Salem, always a 
loyal friend to the Hawthorne family, came to 
Concord in September to deliver an address at 
the annual cattle-show, and visited at the Way- 
side. He had left the Democratic party and 
become a member of the Bird Club, which was 
then the centre of political influence in the State. 
As a matter of course he explained his new 
position to Hawthorne. He had long felt 
attracted to the Republican party, and but for 
his influential position among his fellow-Demo- 
crats, he would have joined it sooner. Parties 
were being reconstructed. Half the Democrats 
had become Republicans; and a considerable 
portion of the Whigs had joined the Democratic 
party. The interests of the Republic were 
in the hands of the Republican party and 
it ought to be supported. We can believe that 

404 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

Hawthorne listened to him with close atten- 
tion. 

It was in the spring of 1862 that I first became 
well acquainted with the Hawthorne family, 
which seemed to exist in an atmosphere of 
purity and refinement derived from the man's 
own genius. Julian visited me at our house in 
Medford during the early summer, where he 
made great havoc among the small fruits of the 
season. We boxed, fenced, skated, played 
cricket and studied Cicero together. As my 
father was one of the most revolutionary of the 
Free-Soilers, this may have amused Hawthorne 
as an instance of the Montagues and Capulets; 
but I found much sympathy with my political 
notions in his household. When the first of 
January came there was a grand celebration of 
the Emancipation in Boston Music Hall. Mrs. 
Hawthorne and Una were very desirous to 
attend it, and I believe they both did so — Miss 
Una at all events. If Mrs. Hawthorne's opinions 
could be taken in any sense as a reflection of 
her husband's mind, he was certainly drifting 
away from his old associations. 

In October, 1862, Hawthorne pubHshed the 
first of a series of studies from English life and 
scenery, taken chiefly from his Note -book, and 
he continued this at intervals until the following 
summer, when Ticknor & Fields brought them 
out with some additions in book form as " Our 
Old Home;" a volume which has already been 
considered in these pages. It was not a favorable 
time for the publication of classic literature, 

405 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

for the whole population of the United States 
was in a ferment; and moreover the unfriendly 
attitude of the English educated classes toward 
the cause of the Union, was beginning to have 
its effect with us. In truth it seemed rather 
inconsistent that the philanthropic Gladstone, 
who had always professed himself the friend of 
freedom, should glorify Jefferson Davis as the 
founder of a new nation — a republic of slave- 
holders. In addition to this, Hawthorne insisted 
on dedicating the volume to President Pierce, and 
when his publishers protested that this would 
tend to make the book unpopular, he replied in a 
spirited manner, that if that was the case it was 
all the more reason why Pierce's friends should 
signify their continued confidence in him. This 
may have made little difference, however, for 
comparatively few readers notice the dedication 
of a book until after they have purchased it; 
and we like Hawthorne for his firmness in this 
instance. 

In England the book produced a sensation of 
the unfavorable sort. Hawthorne's attack on 
the rotundity of the English ladies, whatever 
may have been his reason for it, was, to speak 
reservedly, somewhat lacking in delicacy. It 
stirred up a swarm of newspaper enemies against 
him; and proved a severe strain to the attach- 
ment of his friends there. Henry Bright wrote 
to him: 

"It really was too bad, some of the things you say. You 
talk like a cannibal. Mrs. Haywood says to my mother, 
'I really believe you and I were the only ladies he knew 

406 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

in Liverpool, and we are not like beefsteaks. ' So all the 
ladies are furious."* 

But Hawthorne was no longer what he had been, 
and allowance should be made for this. 

Hawthorne's chief interest at this time, 
however, lay in the preparation of his son for 
Harvard College. Julian was sixteen in August 
and, considering the itinerant life he had lived, 
well advanced in his studies. He was the best- 
behaved boy in Concord, in school or out, and an 
industrious though not ambitious scholar. He 
was strong, vigorous and manly ; and his parents 
had sufficient reason to be proud of him. To 
expect him, however, to enter Harvard College 
at the age of seventeen was somewhat unreason- 
able. His father had entered Bowdoin at that 
age, but the requirements at Harvard were 
much more severe than at Bowdoin; enough to 
make a difference of at least one year in the age 
of the applicant. For a boy to enter college 
in a half-fitted condition is simply to make a 
false start in life, for he is only too likely to 
become discouraged, and either to drag along 
at the foot of the class or to lose his place in it 
altogether. Hawthorne may have felt that 
the end of earthly affairs was close upon him, 
and wished to see his son started on the right 
road before that came; but Emerson also had 
an interest in having Julian go to college at 
exactly this time; namely, to obtain him as a 

*J. Hawthorne, ii. 280. Good Mrs. Alcott also objected 
stoutly to the reflections on her sex. 

407 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

chum for his wife's nephew, with the advantage 
of a tutor's room thrown in as an extra induce- 
ment. He advised Hawthorne to place Julian 
in charge of a Harvard professor who was 
supposed to have a sleight-of-hand faculty 
for getting his pupils through the examinations. 
Julian worked bravely, and succeeded in entering 
Harvard the following July; but he was nine 
months (or a good school year), younger than 
the average of his class. 

Hawthorne did not leave home this summer 
(1863), and the only letter we have of his was 
the one to James T. Fields concerning the 
dedication of "Our Old Home," which was 
published in the autumn. Julian states that his 
father spent much of his time standing or walking 
in his narrow garden before the house, and look- 
ing wistfully across the meadows to Walden 
woods. His strength was evidently failing him, 
yet he could not explain why — nor has it ever 
been explained. 

One bright day in November two of us walked 
up from Cambridge with Julian and lunched at 
his father's. Mr. Hawthorne received us cordially, 
but in a tremulous manner that betrayed the 
weakness of his nerves. As soon as Julian had 
left the room, he said to us, " I suppose it would 
be of little use to ask you young gentlemen 

what sort of a scholar Julian is." H 

replied to this, that we were neither of us in 
the division with him, but that he had heard 
nothing unfavorable in regard to his recitations; 
and I told him that Julian went to the gym- 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

nasium with me every evening, and appeared 
to live a very regular kind of life. This seemed 
to please Mr. Hawthorne very much, and he 
soon produced a decanter of port, and, his son 
having entered the room again, he said, "I 
want to teach Julian the taste of good wine, 
so that he will learn to avoid those horrible 
punches, which I am told you have at Harvard." 
We all laughed greatly at this, which was after- 
ward increased by Julian's saying that the only 
punches he had yet seen were those which the 
sophomores gave us in the foot-ball fight, — or 
some such statement. It was a bright occasion 
for all of us, and when Mrs. Hawthorne and her 
daughters entered the room, such a beautiful 
group as they all formed together! And Haw- 
thorne himself seemed ten years younger than 
when he first greeted us. 

He was the most distinguished-looking man 
that I ever beheld, and no sensible person could 
meet him without instantly recognizing his 
superior mental endowment. His features were 
not only classic but grandly classic; and his 
eyes large, dark, luminous, unfathomable — 
looking into them was like looking into a deep 
well. His face seemed to give a pictorial re- 
flection of whatever was taking place about 
him; and again became like a transparency 
through which one could see dim vistas of 
beautiful objects. The changes of expression 
on it were like the sunshine and clouds of a 
summer day — perhaps thunder clouds some- 
times, with flashes of lightning, which his son 

409 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

may still remember; for where there is a great 
heart there will always be great heat. 

"The Dolliver Romance" 

According to James T. Fields, the ground- 
plan of this work was laid the preceding winter, 
but Hawthorne became dissatisfied with the 
way in which the subject developed itself and 
so set the manuscript aside until he could come 
to it again with fresh inspiration. With the 
more bracing weather of September he com- 
menced on it again, and wrote during the next 
two months that portion which we now have. 
On December i he forwarded two chapters to 
Ticknor & Fields, requesting to have them set 
up so that he could see them in print and obtain 
a retrospective view of his work before he 
proceeded further. Yet on December 15 he 
wrote again, saying that he had not yet found 
courage to attack the proofs, and that all mental 
exertion had become hateful to him.* He was 
evidently feeling badly, and for the first time 
Mrs. Hawthorne was seriously anxious for him. 
Four days later she wrote to Una, who was 
visiting in Beverly : 

' ' Papa is comfortable to-day, but very thin and pale 
and weak. I give him oysters now. Hitherto he has 
had only toasted crackers and lamb and beef tea. I am 
very impatient that he should see Dr. Vanderseude, but he 
wants to go to him himself, and he cannot go till it be 
good weather. . . . The splendor and pride of strength 
in him have succumbed; but they can be restored, I am 

* "Yesterdays with Authors," 115. 
410 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

sure. Meanwhile he is very nervous and deUcate; he cannot 
bear anything, and he must be handled like the airiest 
Venetian glass." * 

He divided his time between lying on a sofa 
and sitting in an arm-chair; and he did not 
seem very comfortable in either position. It 
was long since he had attended meetings of the 
Saturday Club. 

It is clear from this that Hawthorne had not 
recently consulted a doctor concerning his 
condition, and perhaps not at all. He may have 
been right enough in supposing that no common 
practitioner could give him help, but there was 
at that time one of the finest of physiologists 
in Boston, Dr. Edward H. Clark, who cured 
hundreds of sick people every year, as quietly 
and unostentatiously as Dame Nature herself. 
He was a graduate of the University of Penn- 
sylvania, and as such not generally looked upon 
with favor by the Boston medical profession, 
but when Agassiz's large brain gave way in 
1868, Dr. Brown-Sequard telegraphed to him 
from Europe to consult Edward Clark, and 
Doctor Clark so improved his health that Agassiz 
afterward enjoyed a number of years of useful 
work. Perhaps he might have accomplished as 
much for Hawthorne; but how was Hawthorne 
in his retired and uncommunicative life to 
know of him? There are decided advantages in 
living in the great world, and in knowing what 
goes on there, — if one only can. 

* J. Hawthorne, ii. ^^^. 
411 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

It is doubtful if Hawthorne ever opened the 
proof of "The DolHver Romance." In Feb- 
ruary he wrote to Fields that he could not 
possibly go on with it, and as it had already 
been advertised for the Atlantic Monthly, a 
notification had to be published concerning the 
matter, which startled Longfellow, Whittier and 
other old friends of Hawthorne, who were not 
in the way of knowing much about him. The 
fragment that we now have of it was printed in 
the Atlantic many years after his death. 

It was the last expiring ember of Haw- 
thorne's genius, blazing up fitfully and mo- 
mentarily with the same brightness as of old, 
and then disappearing like Hawthorne himself 
into the unknown and the unknowable. It is 
a fragment, and yet it seems complete, for it 
is impossible to imagine how the story could 
have been continued beyond its present limits; 
and Hawthorne left no word from which we 
can conjecture his further intentions in regard 
to it. 

There was an old apothecary in Concord, 
named Reynolds, a similar man to, but not so 
aged as, Hawthorne's Doctor Dolliver ; and he also 
had a son, a bright enterprising boy, — too bright 
and spirited to suit Boston commercialism, — 
who went westward in 1858 to seek his fortune, 
nor have I ever heard of his return. The child 
Pansie, frisking with her kitten — a more simple, 
ingenuous, and self-centred, but also less sympa- 
thetic nature than the Pearl of Hester Prynne 
— ^may have been studied from Hawthorne's 

412 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

daughter Rose. There also lived at Concord in 
Hawthorne's time a man with the title of Colonel, 
a pretentious, self-satisfied person, who cor- 
responded fairly to his description of Colonel 
Dabney, in "The Dolliver Romance." Neither 
is it singular that the apothecary's garden should 
have bordered on a grave-yard, for there are two 
old cemeteries in Concord in the very centre 
of the town. 

I know of no such portrait of an old man as 
Doctor Dolliver in art or literature, — except 
perhaps Tintoretto's portrait of his aged self, 
in the Louvre. We not only see the customary 
marks of age upon him, but we feel them so 
that it seems as if we grew old and stiff and 
infirm as we read of him; and the internal life 
of old age is revealed to us, not by confessions 
of the man himself, but by every word he speaks 
and every act he does as if the writer were a 
skilful tragedian upon the stage. It seems as 
if Hawthorne must have felt all this himself 
during the last year of his life, to describe it so 
vividly; but he ascends by these infirm steps 
to loftier heights than ever before, and the 
scene in which he represents Doctor Dolliver 
seated at night before the fire in his chamber 
after Pansie had been put to bed, is the noblest 
passage in the whole cycle of Hawthorne's art; 
one of those rare passages written in moments 
of gifted insight, when it seems as if a higher 
power guided the writer's hand. It is given here 
entire, for to subtract a word from it would be 
an irreparable injury. 

413 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

" While that music lasted, the old man was 
alive and happy. And there were seasons, it 
might be, happier than even these, when Pansie 
had been kissed and put to bed, and Grandsir 
DoUiver sat by his fireside gazing in among 
the massive coals, and absorbing their glow 
into those cavernous abysses with which all 
men communicate. Hence come angels or 
fiends into our twilight musings, according 
as we may have peopled them in by-gone years. 
Over our friend's face, in the rosy flicker of 
the fire-gleam, stole an expression of repose and 
perfect trust that made him as beautiful to 
look at, in his high-backed chair, as the child 
Pansie on her pillow; and sometimes the spirits 
that were w^atching him beheld a calm surprise 
draw slowly over his features and brighten 
into joy, yet not so vividly as to break his even- 
ing quietude. The gate of heaven had been 
kindly left ajar, that this forlorn old creature 
might catch a glimpse within. All the night 
afterwards, he would be semi-conscious of an 
intangible bliss diffused through the fitful 
lapses of an old man's slumber, and would awake, 
at early dawn, with a faint thrilling of the 
heart-strings, as if there had been music just 
now wandering over them." 

So Jacob in the desert saw angels descending 
and ascending on a ladder from Heaven. Dis- 
couraged, depressed, the door closed upon his 
earthly hopes, not only for himself, but for those 
whom he loves much better than himself, sc 
far as he could ever be a help and a provi- 

414 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

dence to them, Hawthorne finds a purer joy 
and a higher hope in the depths of his own 
spirit. 

In the second chapter, or fragment, of this 
romance. Doctor DolHver, followed by Pansie, 
goes out into the garden one frosty October 
morning, and while the apothecary is digging 
at his herbs, the imitative child, with an in- 
stinctive repulsion for everything strange and 
morbid, puUs up the fatal plant from which the 
elixir of life was distilled, and frightened at her 
grandfather's chiding, runs with it into the 
cemetery where it is lost among the graves and 
never seen again. This account stands by 
itself, having no direct connection with what 
precedes or follows; but the delineation is so 
vivid, the poetic element in it so strong, that it 
may be said to stand without assistance, and 
does not require the name of Hawthorne to give 
it value. 

In the conclusion, the elixir of life proves to 
be an elixir of death; extremes meet and are 
reconciled. As he says in "The Marble Faun," 
joy changes to sorrow and sorrow is laughed 
away; the experience of both being that which 
is really valuable. Doctor Dolliver and Pansie 
are figures for the end and the beginning of 
life ; the Old Year and the New. Such is the 
sum of Hawthorne's philosophy — the ultimate 
goal of his thought. There could have been no 
more fitting consummation of his work. The 
cycle of his art is complete, and death binds 
the laurel round his brow. 

41S 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

A Hero's End 

After Hawthorne's letter of February 25, 
Fields felt that he ought to make an effort in his 
behalf. Fields's partner, W. D. Ticknor, was 
also ailing, and it was arranged that he and 
Hawthorne should go on a journey southward 
as soon as the weather permitted. Doctor 
Holmes was consulted, and the last of March 
Hawthorne came to Boston and met Holmes at 
Fields's house. Holmes made an examination, 
which was anything but satisfactory to his own 
mind; in fact, he was appalled at the condition 
in which he found his former companion of the 
Saturday Club. "He was very gentle," Holmes 
says; "very willing to answer questions, very 
docile to such counsel as I offered him, but 
evidently had no hope of recovering his health. 
He spoke as if his work were done, and he should 
write no more."* The doctor, however, must 
have been mistaken in supposing that Haw- 
thorne was suffering from the same malady 
that carried off General Grant, for no human 
being could die in that manner without suffering 
greater pain than Hawthorne gave any indica- 
tion of; and the sedatives which Holmes pre- 
scribed for him could only have resulted in a 
weakening of the nerves. He even warned Haw- 
thorne against the use of alcoholic stimulants, 
to which for some time he had been more or 
less accustomed. 



* Atlantic Monthly, July, 1864. 
416 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

Hawthorne and Ticknor went to New York, 
and two days later Ticknor was able to write 
to Mrs. Hawthorne that her husband appeared 
to be much improved. How cruelly disappoint- 
ing to meet him at their own door four days 
later, haggard, weary and more dispirited than 
when he had left the Wayside on March 26! 
He had proceeded to Philadelphia with Ticknor, 
and there at the Continental Hotel Ticknor 
was suddenly seized with a mortal malady and 
died almost in Hawthorne's arms, before the 
latter could notify his family in Boston that he 
was ill. What a severe ordeal for a man who 
was strong and well, but to a person in Haw- 
thorne's condition it was like a thunderbolt. 
Ticknor 's son came to him at once, and together 
they performed the necessary duties of the 
occasion, and made their melancholy way home- 
ward. Nothing, perhaps, except a death in 
his own family, could have had so unfavorable 
an effect upon Hawthorne's condition. 

Some good angel now notified Franklin Pierce 
of the serious posture of affairs, and he came at 
once to Concord to offer his services in Haw- 
thorne's behalf. However, he could propose 
nothing more hopeful than a journey in the 
uplands of New Hampshire, and for this it would 
be necessary to wait for settled weather. So 
Hawthorne remained at home for the next 
month without his condition becoming appar- 
ently either better or worse. At length, on 
May 13, the ex-President returned and they 
went together the following day. 
27 417 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

We will not linger over that leave-taking on 
the porch of the Wayside; so pathetic, so full 
of tenderness, even of despair, and yet with a 
slender ray of hope beneath the leaden cloud of 
anxiety. To Hawthorne it must have seemed 
even more discouraging than to his wife and 
children, though none of them could have sus- 
pected that the end would be so soon. 

On the morning of May 20, I had just returned 
from my first recitation when Julian Hawthorne 
appeared at my room in the Massachusetts 
dormitory, and said, like a man gasping for 
breath, "My father is dead, and I want you to 
come with me." Fields had sent him word 
through Professor Gurney, who knew how to 
deliver such a message in the kindliest manner. 
We went at once to Fields 's house on Charles 
Street, where Mrs. Fields gave Julian the little 
information already known to them through a 
dispatch from Franklin Pierce, — that his father 
died during his sleep in the night of May 18, 
at the Pemmigewasset House, Plymouth, New 
Hampshire. After this we wandered about 
Boston, silent and aimless, until the afternoon 
train carried him to Concord. He greatly 
dreaded meeting the gaze of his fellow-towns- 
men, and confessed that he wanted to hide 
himself in the woods like a wounded deer.* 

* The passage in "A Fool of Nature," in which he de- 
scribes Murgatroyd's discovery of his father's death, must 
have been a reminiscence of this time — a passage of the 
finest genius. 

418 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

On Wednesday, May i8, Hawthorne and 
Pierce drove from Centre Harbor to Plymouth, 
a long and rather rough journey to be taken in 
a carriage. Hawthorne, however, did not make 
much complaint of this, nor did he seem to be 
unusually fatigued. He retired to his room 
soon after nine o'clock, and was sleeping com- 
fortably an hour later. Pierce was evidently 
nervous about him, for he went in to look at 
him at two in the morning, and again at four; 
and the last time he discovered that life was 
extinct. Hawthorne had died in his sleep as 
quietly and peacefully as he had lived. There 
is the same mystery in his death that there was 
in his life, and it is difficult to assign either an 
immediate or a proximate cause for it. With 
such a physique, and his simple, regular habits 
of life, he ought to have reached the age of 
ninety. General Pierce believed that he died of 
paralysis, and that is the most probable ex- 
planation; but it w^as not like the usual cases 
of paralysis at Hawthorne's age ; for, as we have 
seen, the process of disintegration and failure 
of his powers had been going on for years. Nor 
did this follow, as commonly happens, a pro- 
tracted period of adversity, but it came upon 
him during the most prosperous portion of his 
life. The first ten years following upon his 
marriage were years of anxiety, self-denial and 
even hardship ; but other men, Alcott, for example, 
have suffered as much and yet lived to a good 
old age. It may have been "the old dull pain" 
which Longfellow associated with him, filing 

419 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

perpetually on the vital cord. It was part of 
the enigmatic side of his nature. 

The last ceremonies of respect to the earthly 
remains of Hawthorne were performed at Con- 
cord on May 23, 1864, in the Unitarian Church, 
a commodious building,* well adapted to the 
great concourse of mourners who gathered 
there on this occasion. Reverend James Freeman 
Clarke, who had united Hawthorne and Sophia 
Peabody in marriage twenty- two years before, 
was now called upon to preside over the last act 
in their married life. The simple eloquence of 
his address penetrated to the heart of every 
person present. "Hawthorne had achieved a 
twofold immortality, — and his immortality on 
earth would be a comforting presence to all who 
mourned him. The noblest men of the age had 
gathered there, to testify to his worth as a man 
as well as to his genius as a writer." Faces were 
to be seen in that assembly that were never 
beheld in Concord before. Among these was the 
soldierly figure and flashing eye of the poet 
Whittier. Longfellow, Emerson, Lowell, Agassiz, 
Alcott and Hillard were present; and ex- 
President Pierce shook hands with Judge Hoar 
over Hawthorne's bier. After the services the 
assembly of mourners proceeded to Sleepy 
Hollow cemetery, and there the mortal remains 
of Hawthorne were buried under the pine trees 
on the same hill-side where he and Emerson 



* In 1899 this building was burned to the ground, and a 
new church has been erected on the same spot. 

420 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

and Margaret Fuller conversed together on the 
summer afternoon twenty years before. He 
needs no monument, for he has found a place in 
the universal pantheon of art and literature. 

It would seem advisable at this parting of 
the ways to say something of Hawthorne's 
religious convictions. He went as a boy with his 
mother and sisters to the East Church in Salem, 
a society of liberal tendencies and then on the 
verge of Unitarianism. All the Manning family 
attended service there, but at a later time 
Robert Manning separated from it and joined 
an orthodox society. Hawthorne's mother and 
his sister Louisa became Unitarians, and at 
Madam Hawthorne's death in 1848 the funeral 
services were conducted by Reverend Thomas 
T. Stone, of the First Salem Church. It is 
presumable that Nathaniel Hawthorne also 
became a Unitarian, so far as he can be con- 
sidered a sectarian at all; but certain elements 
of the older faith still remained in his mental 
composition. It cannot be questioned that the 
strong optimism in Emerson's philosophy was 
derived from Doctor Channing's instruction, and 
it is equally certain that Hawthorne could 
never agree to this. Whatever might be the 
origin of evil or its abstract value, he found it 
too potent an element in human affairs to be 
quietly reasoned out of existence. Whatever 
might be the ultimate purpose of Divine Provi- 
dence, the witchcraft prosecutions were an 
awful calamity to those who were concerned in 

421 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

them. In this respect he resembled David A. 
Wasson, one of the most devout religious minds, 
who left the church of Calvin (as it was in his 
time), without ever becoming a Unitarian or a 
radical. Miss Rebecca Manning says : 

"I never knew of Hawthorne's going to church at all, 
after I remember about him, and do not think he was ever in 
the habit of going. I think he may have gone sometimes 
when he was in England, but I do not know about it. 
Somewhere in Julian or Rose Hawthorne's reminiscences, 
there is mention made of his reading family prayers, when 
he was in England. He, as also his mother and sisters were 
people of deeply religious natures, though not always show- 
ing it by outward observances." 

A Concord judge and an old Free-Soil politician 
once attended a religious convention, and after 
the business of the day was over they went to 
walk together. The politician confessed to the 
judge that he had no very definite religious 
belief, for which the judge thought he did him- 
self great injustice; but is not that the most 
advanced and intelligent condition of a man's 
religious faith? How can we possess clear and 
definite ideas of the grand mystery of Creation? 
Consider only this simple metaphysical fact, 
that space has no limit, and that we can neither 
conceive a beginning of time nor imagine time 
without a beginning. What is there outside of 
the universe ? The brain reels as we think of it. 
The time has gone by when a man can say to 
himself definitely, I believe this or I believe that ; 
but we know at least that we, "the creature of 
a day," cannot be the highest form of intelli- 
gence in this wonderful world. We thought that 

422 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

we lived in solid bodies, but electric rays have 
been discovered by which the skeletons inside 
of us become visible. The correlation and con- 
servation of forces brings us very close to the 
origin of all force; and yet in another sense we 
are as far off as ever from the perception of it. 
This would seem to have been also Hawthorne's 
position in regard to religious faith. What do 
we know of the religious belief of Michel Angelo, 
of Shakespeare, or of Beethoven? We cannot 
doubt that they were sincerely and purely 
religious men; but neither of them made any 
confession of their faith. Vittoria Colonna may 
have known something of Michel Angelo's 
belief, but Vasari does not mention it; and 
Beethoven confessed it was a subject that he 
did not like to talk about. The deeper a man's 
sense of the awe and mystery which underlies 
Nature, the less he feels inclined to expose it to 
the public gaze. Hawthorne's own family did 
not know what his religious opinions were — 
only that he was religious. One may imagine 
that the reticent man would be more reticent on 
this subject than on any other; but we can feel 
confident that at least he was not a sceptic, for 
the confirmed sceptic inevitably becomes a 
chatterer. He walks to Walden Pond with 
Hillard and Emerson on Sunday, and confesses 
his doubts as to the utility of the Church (in 
its condition at that time) , for spiritual enlight- 
enment ; but in regard to the great omnipresent 
fact of spirituality he has no doubt. In "The 
Snow Image" he makes a statue come to life, 

423 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

and says in conclusion that if a new miracle is 
ever wrought in this world it will be in some 
such simple manner as he has described. 

To the poetic mind, which is after all the 
highest form of intellect, the grand fact of 
existence is a sufficient miracle. The rising of 
the sun, the changes of the seasons, the blooming 
of flowers and the ripening of the grain, were 
all miracles to Hawthorne, and none the less so 
because they are continually being repeated. 
The scientists tell us that all these happen accord- 
ing to natural laws: perfectly true, but who 
was it that made those laws? Who is it that 
keeps the universe running? Laws made for 
the regulation of human affairs by the wisest of 
men often prove ineffective, and inadequate 
to the purpose for which they were intended; 
but the laws of Nature work with unfailing 
accuracy. The boy solves his problem in 
algebra, finding out the unknown quantity by 
those values which are given him; and can we 
not also infer something of the unknown from 
the great panorama that passes unceasingly 
before us? The one thing that Hawthorne 
could not have understood was, how gifted 
minds like Lucretius and Auguste Comte could 
recognize only the evidence of their senses, and 
deliberately blind themselves to the evidence of 
their intellects. He who denies the existence of 
mind as a reality resembles a person looking for 
his spectacles when they are on his nose; but 
it is the imagination of the poet that leads 
civilization onward to its goal. 

424 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

College life is rather generally followed by a 
period of scepticism, partly owing in former times 
to the enforced attendance at morning prayers, 
and still more perhaps to the study of Greek 
and Latin authors. During what might be 
called Hawthorne's period of despair, he could 
not very well have obtained consolation from 
the traditional forms of divine worship; at 
least, such has been the experience of all those 
who have passed through the Wertherian stage, 
so far as we know of them. It is a time when 
every man has to strike the fountain of spiritual 
life out of the hard rock of his own existence; 
and those are fortunate who, like Moses and 
Hawthorne, strike forcibly enough to accomplish 
this. It is the "new birth from above," in the 
light of which religious forms seem of least 
importance. 

One effect of matrimony is commonly a deep- 
ening of religious feeling, but it is not surprising 
that Hawthorne should not have attended 
church after his marriage. His wife had not been 
accustomed to church-going, on account of the 
uncertainty of her health; the Old Manse was 
a long distance from the Concord tabernacle; 
Hawthorne's associates in Concord, with the 
exception of Judge Keyes, were not in the habit 
of going to church; and the officiating minister, 
both at that time and during his later sojourn, 
was not a person who could have been intel- 
lectually attractive to him. Somewhat similar 
reasons may have interfered with his attendance 
after his return to Salem; and during the last 

425 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

fifteen years of his life, he was too much of a 
wanderer to take a serious interest in the local 
affairs of the various places he inhabited ; but he 
was desirous that his children should go to church 
and should be brought up in honest Christian 
ways. 

Little more need to be said concerning Haw- 
thorne's character as a man. It was not so 
perfect as Longfellow's, to whom all other 
American authors should bow the head in this 
respect — the Washington of poets; and yet it 
was a rare example of purity, refinement, and 
patient endurance. His faults were insignificant 
in comparison with his virtues, and the most 
conspicuous of them, his tendency to revenge 
himself for real or fancied injuries, is but a part 
of the natural instinct in us to return the blows 
we receive in self-defence. Wantonly, and of 
his own accord, he never injured human being. 
His domestic life was as pure and innocent as 
that which appeared before the world; and 
Mrs. Hawthorne once said of him in my presence 
that she did not believe he ever committed an 
act that could properly be considered wrong. 
It was like his writing, and his "wells of English 
undefiled" were but as a synonym for the clear 
current of his daily existence. 

The ideality in Hawthorne's face was so 
conspicuous that it is recognizable in every 
portrait of him. It was not the cold visionary 
expression of the abstract thinker, but a 
human poetic intelligence, which resolved all 
things into a spiritual alembic of its own, 

426 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

It is this which elevates him above all writers 
who only deal with the outer world as they find 
it, and add nothing to it from their own natures. 

George Brandes, the Danish critic and essayist, 
speaks of Hawthorne somewhere as "the baby 
poet;" but we suspect that if he had ever met 
the living Hawthorne, he would have stood 
very much in awe of him. It would not have 
been like meeting Ernest Renan or John Stuart 
Mill. Although Hawthorne was not splenetic or 
rash, there was an occasional look in his eye 
which a prudent person might beware of. He 
was emphatically a man of courage. 

The wide and liberal interest which German 
scholars and writers have so long taken in the 
literature of other nations, has resulted in found- 
ing an informal literary tribunal in Germany, 
to which the rest of the world is accustomed to 
appeal. A. E. Schonbach, one of the most 
recent German writers on universal literature, 
gives his impression of Hawthorne in the follow- 
ing statement: 

" I find the distinguishing excellence of Haw- 
thorne's imaginative writings in the union 
of profound, keen, psychological development of 
characters and problems with the most lucid 
objectivity and a joyous modern realism. Oc- 
casionally there appears a light and delicate 
humor, sometimes hidden in a mere adjective, 
or little phrase which lights up the gloomiest 
situation with a gentle ray of hope. Far from 
unimportant do I rate the charm of his language, 
its purity, its melody, its graceful flexibility, 

427 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

the wealth of vocabulary, the polish which 
rarely betrays the touch of the file. After, or 
with George Eliot, Hawthorne is the first English 
prose writer of our century. At the same time 
he sacrifices nothing of his peculiar American 
quality. Not only does he penetrate into the 
most secret inner movements of the old colonial 
life, as no one else has done, and reproduces 
the spirit of his forefathers with a power of 
intuition which no historical work could equal; 
but m all his other works, from the biography 
of General Pierce, to the ' Marble Faun, ' Haw- 
thorne shows the freshness and keenness, the 
precision and lucidity, and other qualities not 
easy to describe, which belong to American 
literature. He is its chief representative. " * 
iT Hawthorne has always been accorded a high 
/position in literature, and as time goes on I 
C believe this will be increased rather than dimin- 
Cished. In beauty of diction he is the first of 
American writers, and there are few that equal 
him in this respect in other languages. It is 
a pleasure to read him, simply for his form of 
expression, and apart from the meaning which 
he conveys in his sentences. It is like the grace 
of the Latin races, — like Dante and Chateau- 
briand; and the adaptation of his words is so 
perfect that we never have to think twice for 
his meaning. In those editions called the 
Elzevirs, which are so much pri^d by book 
collectors, the clearness and legibility of the 

* "Gesammelte Aufsatze zur neueren Litteratur, " p. 346. 
428 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

type result from such a fine proportion of space 
and line that no other printer has succeeded in 
imitating it; and there is something similar 
to this in the construction of Hawthorne's 
sentences. 

He is the romance writer of the English 
language; and there is no form of literature 
which the human race prizes more. How many 
translations there have been of "The Vicar of 
Wakefield," and of "The Sorrows of Werther"! 
The latter is not one of Goethe's best, and yet 
it made him famous at the age of twenty-eight. 
The novel deals with what is new and surprising ; 
the romance with what is old and universal. 
In "The Vicar of Wakefield" we have the old 
story of virtue outwitted by evil, which is in 
its turn outwitted by wisdom. There is nothing 
new in it except the charming exposition which 
Goldsmith's genius has given to the subject. 
Thackeray ridiculed "The Sorrows of Werther," 
and in the light of matured judgment the tale 
appears ridiculous; but it strikes home to the 
heart, because we all learn wisdom through such 
experiences, of which young Werther 's is an 
extreme instance. It was only another example 
of the close relation that subsists between 
comedy and tragedy. 

It cannot be questioned that "The Scarlet 
Letter" ranks above "The Sorrows of Werther;" 
nor is it less evident that "The Marble Faun" 
falls short of "Wilhelm Meister" and "Don 
Quixote."* Hawthorne's position, therefore, 

* See "Cervantes" in North American Review, May, 1905 
429 



THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF 

lies between these two — nearer perhaps to 
"Werther" than to "Wilhelm Meister." In 
certain respects he is surpassed by the great 
English novelists: Fielding, Scott, Thackeray, 
Dickens and Marian Evans; but he in turn 
surpasses them all in the perfection and poetic 
quality of his art. There is much poetry in 
Scott and Dickens, a little also in Thackeray 
and Miss Evans, but Hawthorne's poetic vein 
has a more penetrating tone, and appeals more 
deeply than Scott's verses. If power and 
versatility of characterization were to be the 
test of imaginative writing, Dickens would 
push closely on to Shakespeare; but we do not 
go to Shakespeare to read about Hamlet or 
Falstaff, or for the sake of the story, or even for 
his wisdom, but for the tout ensemble — to read 
Shakespeare. Raphael painted a dozen or more 
pictures on the same subject, but they are all 
original, interesting and valuable, because 
Raphael painted them. If it were not for the 
odd characters and variety of incident in Dick- 
ens's novels they would hardly be worth reading. 
Hawthorne's dramatis persona; is not a long one, 
for his plots do not admit of it, but his characters 
are finely drawn, and the fact that they have not 
become popular types is rather in their favor. 
There are Dombeys and Shylocks in plenty, 
but who has ever met a Hamlet or a Rosalind in 
real life? 

A certain English writer promulgated a list 
of the hundred superior authors of all times and 
countries. There were no Americans in his 

430 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

catalogue, but he admitted that if the number 
was increased to one hundred and eighteen 
Hawthorne and Emerson might be included in 
it. Doubtless he had not heard of Webster or 
Alexander Hamilton, and many of his country- 
men would be inclined to place Longfellow 
before Emerson. 

I have myself frequently counted over the 
great w^riters of all times and languages, w^eighing 
their respective values carefully in my mind, 
but I have never been able to discover more 
than thirty-five authors who seem to me de- 
cidedly superior to Hawthorne, nor above forty 
others who might be placed on an equality 
with him.* This, of course, is only an individual 
opinion, and should be accepted for what it is 
worth; but there are many ancient writers, 
like Hesiod, Xenophon, and Catullus, whose 
chief value resides in their antiquity, and a 
much larger number of modern authors, 
such as Balzac, Victor Hugo, Freytag, and 
Ruskin, who have been over-estimated in their 
own time. Petrarch, and the author of " Gil 
Bias," might be placed on a level with Haw- 
thorne, but certainly not above him. Those 
whom he most closely resembles in style and 
subject matter are Goldsmith, Manzoni, and 
Auerbach. 

Yet Hawthorne is essentially a domestic 
writer, — a poetizer of the hearth-stone. Social 
life is always the proper subject for works of 

* Appendix C. 
431 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

fiction, and political life should never enter 
into them, except as a subordinate element; 
but there is a border-land between the two, in 
which politics and society act and react on 
each other, and it is from this field that the 
great subjects for epic and dramatic poetry 
have always been reaped. Hawthorne only 
knew of this by hearsay. Of the strenuous 
conflict that continually goes on in political 
centres like London and New York, a struggle 
for wealth, for honor, and precedence; of plots 
and counterplots, of foiled ambition and ruined 
reputations, — with all this Hawthorne had but 
sHght acquaintance. We miss in him the 
masculine vigor of Fielding, the humanity of 
Dickens, and the trenchant criticism of Thack- 
eray; but he knew that the true poetry of life 
(at the present time) was to be found in quiet 
nooks and in places far off from the turbulent 
maelstrom of humanity, and in his own line 
he remains unrivalled. 



432 



Portraits of Hawthorne 



Hawthorne had no more vanity in his na- 
ture than is requisite to preserve a good appear- 
ance in pubHc, but he always sat for his portrait 
when asked to do so, and this was undoubtedly 
the most sensible way. He was first painted 
by Charles Osgood in 1840, a portrait which 
has at least the merit of a fine poetic expression. 
He was afterward painted by Thompson, Healy, 
and Emanuel Leutze, and drawn in crayon 
by Rowse and Eastman Johnson. Frances 
Osborne also painted a portrait of him from 
photographs in 1893, an excellent likeness, 
and notable especially for its far-off gaze. Of 
all these, Rowse 's portrait is the finest work of 
art, for Rowse was a man of genius, but there 
is a slight tendency to exaggeration in it, and 
it does not afford so clear an idea of Hawthorne 
as he was, as the Osborne portrait. Healy 
was not very successful with Hawthorne, and 
Miss Lander's bust has no merit whatever. The 
following list contains most of the portraits and 
photographs of Hawthorne now known to exist, 
with their respective ownerships and locations. 

Oil portrait painted by Charles Osgood, in 
1840. Owned by Mrs. Richard C. Manning. 

Crayon portrait drawn by Eastman H. Johnson, 
in 1846. Owned by Miss Alice M. Longfellow. 
28 433 



PORTRAITS OF HAWTHORNE 

Oil portrait painted by George P. A. Healy, in 
1850. Now in the possession of Kirk Pierce, Esq. 

Oil portrait by Miss H. Frances Osborne, 
after a photograph by Silsbee, Case & Co., 
Boston. 

Crayon portrait drawn by Samuel W. Rowse, 
in 1866. Owned by Mrs. Annie Fields. 

Engraving after the portrait painted in 1850 
by Cephas G. Thompson. Owned by Hon. 
Henry C. Leach. 

The Grolier Club bronze medallion, made 
in 1892, by Ringel d'lllzach. Owned by B, 
W. Pierson. 

Cabinet photograph, bust, by Elliott & Fry, 
London. Owned by Mrs. Richard C. Manning. 

Card photograph, full length, seated, with 
book in right hand, by Black & Case, Boston. 

Cabinet photograph, three-quarter length, 
standing beside a pillar, copy by Mackintire of 
the original photograph. 

Card photograph, three-quarter length, 
seated, from Warren's Photographic Studio, 
Boston. 

Card photograph, bust, by Brady, New York, 
with autographic signature. Owned by Hon. 
Henry C. Leach. 

Bust in the Concord (Massachusetts) Public 
Library, by Miss Louise Lander. 

Card photograph, bust, from Warren's Photo- 
graphic Studio, Boston. Owned by Mrs. Richard 
C. Manning. 

Oil portrait by Emanuel Leutze, painted in 
April, 1852. Owned by Julian Hawthorne. 

434 



PORTRAITS OF HAWTHORNE 

Photograph by Mayall, London. The so- 
called "Motley photograph." 

Two photographs by Brady, full length; 
one seated, the other standing. 

Photograph showing Hawthorne, Ticknor 
and Fields standing together. 



435 



Editions of Nathaniel Hawthorne's Books 
pubHshed under his own Direction 



Fanshawe : A Tale, Boston, 1828. 

Twice-Told Tales, Boston, 1837. 

Another edition, Boston, 1842. 

Peter Parley's Universal History, Boston, 1837. 

The Gentle Boy : A Thrice-Told Tale, Boston, 1839. 

Grandfather's Chair : A History for Youth, Boston, 1841. 

Famous Old People : or Grandfather's Chair II, Boston, 
1841. 

Liberty Tree : The Last Words of Grandfather's Chair, 
Boston, 1841. 

Biographical Stories for Children, Boston, 1842. 

Historical Tales for Youth, Boston, 1842. 

The Celestial Railroad, Boston, 1843. 

Mosses from an Old Manse, New York, 1846, 1851. 

The Scarlet Letter, Boston, 1850. 

True Stories from History and Biography, Boston, 1851. 

The House of the Seven Gables, Boston, 1862. 

A Wonder-Book for Girls and Boys, Boston, 1851. 

Another edition, Boston, 1857. 

The Snow-Image and Other Tales, Boston, 1852. 

Another edition, Boston, 1857. 

The Blithedale Romance, Boston, 1852. 

Life of Franklin Pierce, Boston, 1852. 

Tanglewood Tales for Girls and Boys, Boston, 1853, 
436 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 

Transformation, or the Romance of Monte Beni, Smith & 
Elder, London, 1860. 

The Marble Faun, or the Romance of Monte Beni, Bos- 
ton, 1860. 

Our Old Home, Boston, 1863. 

A complete list of Hawthorne'' s contributions to Ameriecm 
magazines will be found in the appendix to Conway's "Life of 
Hawthorne. " 



437 



Mrs. Emerson and Mrs. Hawthorne* 



In 1892, when I was constructing the volume 
known as ' ' Sketches from Concord and Apple- 
dore," I said in comparing Emerson with Haw- 
thorne that one was Hke day, and the other 
like night. I was not aware that four years 
earlier M. D. Conway had made a similar state- 
ment in his Life of Hawthorne, which was 
published in London. Miss Rebecca Manning, 
Hawthorne's own cousin, still living at the age 
of eighty and an admirable old lady, distinctly 
confirms my statement, that "wherever Haw- 
thorne went he carried twilight with him." 
Emerson, on the contrary, was of a sanguine 
temperament and an essentially sunny nature. 
His writings are full of good cheer, and the 
opening of his Divinity School Address is as 
full of summer sunshine as the finest July day. 
It was only necessary to see him look at the 
siuishine from his own porch to recognize how 
it penetrated into the depths of his nature. 

It would seem consistent with the rational 
order of things, that day should be supplemented 
by night, and night again by day; and here we 
are almost startled by the completeness of our 
allegory. We sometimes come across faces in 
the streets of a large city, which show by their 

* Read at the Emerson Club, at Boston, January 2, 1906. 
438 



MRS. EMERSON AND MRS. HAWTHORNE 

expression that they are more accustomed to 
artificial light than to the light of the sun. 
Mrs. Emerson was one of these. She never 
seemed to be fully herself, until the lamps 
were lighted. Her pale face seemed to give 
forth moonlight, and its habitual expression 
was much like that of a Sister of Charity. It 
was said of her that she was the last in the 
house to retire at night, always reading or 
busying herself with household affairs, until 
twelve or one o'clock; but this mode of life 
would appear to have been suited to her organi- 
zation, for in spite of her colorless look she 
lived to be over ninety. 

So far I can tread upon firm earth, without 
drawing upon my imagination, but in regard 
to Mrs. Hawthorne I cannot speak with the 
same assurance, for I only became acquainted 
with her after her husband's health had begun 
to fail, and the anxiety in her face was strongly 
marked ; yet I have reason to believe that her 
temperament was originally sanguine and 
optimistic, and that she alternated from dreamy, 
pensive moods to bright vivacious ones. She 
certainly was very different from her husband. 
Her sister, Elizabeth Peabody, was the most 
sanguine person of her time, and her introduc- 
tion of the kindergarten into America was 
accomplished through her unbounded hope- 
fulness. The Wayside, where Mrs. Hawthorne 
lived, has an extended southern exposure. The 
house was always full of light, which is not 
often the case with New England country 

439 



MRS. EMERSON AND MRS. HAWTHORNE 

houses ; and when she lived at Liverpool, where 
sunshine is a rare commodity, she became un- 
well, so that Mr. Hawthorne was obliged to 
send her to Madeira in order to avert a dan- 
gerous illness. 

These two estimable ladies were alike in the 
excellence of their housekeeping, the purity 
of their manners, their universal kindliness, 
and their devotion to the welfare of their hus- 
bands and children. It was a pleasure to pass 
them on the road-side ; the fare at their tables 
was always of the nicest, even if it happened 
to be frugal; and people of all classes could 
have testified to their helpful liberality. In 
these respects they might almost have served 
as models, but otherwise they were as different 
as possible. Mrs. Emerson was of a tall, slender, 
and somewhat angular figure (like her hus- 
band), but she presided at table with a grace 
and dignity that quite justified his favorite 
epithet of " Queenie." There was even more 
of the Puritan left in her than there was in him, 
and although she encouraged the liberal move- 
ments and tendencies of her time, one always 
felt in her mental attitude the inflexibility of 
the moral law. To her mind there was no shady 
border-land between right and wrong, but the 
two were separated by a sharply defined line, 
which was never to be crossed, and she lived 
up to this herself, and, in theory at least, 
she had but little mercy for sinners. On 
one occasion I was telling Mr. Emerson of 
a fraudulent manufacturing company, which 

440 



MRS. EMERSON AND MRS. HAWTHORNE 

had failed, as it deserved to, and which was 
found on investigation to have kept two sets 
of books, one for themselves, and another for 
their creditors. Mrs. Emerson listened to this 
narrative with evident impatience, and at the 
close of it she exclaimed, "This world has be- 
come so wicked that if I were the maker of it, 
I should blow it up at once." Emerson him- 
self did not like such stories; and although 
he once said that "all deaf children ought to 
be put in the water with their faces down- 
ward," he was not always willing to accept 
human nature for what it really is. 

Mrs. Emerson did not agree with her hus- 
band's religious views; neither did she adopt 
the transcendental faith, that the idea of God 
is innate in the human mind, so that we can- 
not be dispossessed of it. She belonged to the 
conservative branch of the Unitarian Church, 
which was represented by Reverend James 
Freeman Clarke and Doctor Andrew P. Pea- 
body. The subject was one which was permitted 
to remain in abeyance between them, but Mrs. 
Emerson was naturally suspicious of those 
reverend gentlemen who called upon her hus- 
band, and this may have been the reason why 
he did not encourage the visits of clergymen 
like Samuel Johnson, Samuel Longfellow, and 
Professor Hedge, whom he greatly respected, 
and who should have been by good rights his 
chosen companions. I suppose all husbands are 
obliged to make these domestic compromises. 

Mrs. Emerson had also something of the 
441 



MRS. EMERSON AND MRS. HAWTHORNE 

spirit-militant in her. When David A. Wasson 
came to dine at Mr. Emerson's invitation, 
she said to him, by way of grace before meat: 
"I see you have been carrying on a controversy 
with Reverend Mr. Sears, of Wayland, and you 
will excuse me for expressing my opinion that 
Mr. Sears had the best of it." But after sound- 
ing this little flourish of trumpets, she was as 
kindly and hospitable as any one could desire. 
She was one of the earliest recruits to the anti- 
slavery cause, — not only a volunteer, but a 
recruiting officer as well, — and she made this 
decision entirely of her ow^n mind, without any 
special encouragement from her husband or rel- 
atives. At the time of John Brown's execution 
she wanted to have the bells tolled in Concord, 
and urged her husband energetically to see that 
it was done. Mrs. Emerson was always thor- 
oughly herself. There never was the shadow 
of an affectation upon her; nor more than a 
shadow of self-consciousness — very rare among 
conscientious persons. One of her fine traits 
was her fondness for flowers, which she culti- 
vated in the little garden between her house 
and the mill-brook, with a loving assiduity. 
She is supposed to have inspired Emerson's 
poem, beginning: 

" O fair and stately maid, whose eyes 
Were kindled in the upper skies 

At the same torch that lighted mine: 
For so I must interpret still 
Thy sweet dominion o'er my will, 
A sympathy divine." 

442 



MRS. EMERSON AND MRS. HAWTHORNE 

There are other references to her in his pub- 
lished writings, which only those who were 
personally acquainted with her would recognize. 

Mrs. Hawthorne belonged to the class of 
womankind which Shakespeare has typified 
in Ophelia, a tender-hearted, affectionate na- 
ture, too sensitive for the rough strains of life, 
and too innocent to recognize the guile in others. 
This was at once her strength and her weakness ; 
but it was united, as often happens, with a 
fine artistic nature, and superior intelligence. 
Her face and manners both gave the impres- 
sion of a wide and elevated culture. One could 
see that although she lived by the wayside, 
she had been accustomed to enter palaces. 
Her long residence in England, her Italian 
experience, her visit to the Court of Portugal, 
her enjoyment of fine pictures, poetry, and 
architecture, the acquaintance of distinguished 
men and women in different countries, had all 
left their impress upon her, combined in a 
quiet and lady-like harmony. Her conversa- 
tion was cosmopolitan, and though she did not 
quite possess the narrative gift of her sister 
Elizabeth, it was often exceedingly interesting. 

Hawthorne has been looked upon as the 
necrologist of the Puritans, and yet a certain 
coloring of Puritanism adhered to him to the 
last. It was his wife who had entirely escaped 
from the old New England conventicle. Se- 
verity was at the opposite pole from her moral 
nature. Tolerant and charitable to the faults 

443 



MRS. EMERSON AND MRS. HAWTHORNE 

of others, her only fault was the lack of severity. 
She believed in the law of love, and when kind 
words did not serve her purpose she let matters 
take what course they would, trusting that 
good might fall, "At last far off at last to all." 
I suspect her pathway was by no means a 
flowery one. Mrs. Emerson's life had to be as 
stoical as her husband's, and Mrs. Hawthorne's, 
previous to the Liverpool consulate, — the con- 
sulship of Hawthorne, — was even more diffi- 
cult. No one knew better than she the meaning 
of that heroism which each day requires. A 
writer in the Atlantic Monthly, reviewing 
Julian Hawthorne's biography of his father, 
emphasizes, "the dual selfishness of Mr. 
and Mrs. Hawthorne." Insensate words! There 
was no room for selfishness in the lives 
they led. In a certain sense they lived almost 
wholly for one another and for their children; 
but Hawthorne himself lived for all time and 
for all mankind, and his wife lived through 
him to the same purpose. The especial form 
of their material life was as essential to its 
spiritual outgrowth as the rose-bush is to the 
rose; and it would be a cankered selfishness 
to complain of them for it. 



444 



Appendices 



APPENDIX A 

There is at least one error in the Symmes 
diary, which is however explainable, and need 
not vitiate the whole of it. It has been ascer- 
tained that the drowning of Henry Jackson 
in Songo River by being kicked in the mouth 
by another boy while swimming, took place 
in 1828, so that the statement to that effect in 
the diary, must have been interpolated. As it 
happened, however, another Henry Jackson 
was drowned in the Songo River, so Mr. Pick- 
ard says, more than twenty years before that, 
and it is quite possible that young Hawthorne 
overheard some talk about that catastrophe, 
and mistook it for a recent event; and that 
Symmes afterwards confounding the two Jack- 
sons and the difference in time, amended Haw- 
thorne's statement as we now have it. Mr. 
Pickard says in a recent letter: 

" This item alone led me to doubt. But I cannot doubt, 
the more I reflect upon it, that H. himself had a hand in 
most, if not all, the other items. Who but his uncle could 
have written that inscription? The negro Symmes could not 
have composed that — only a man of culture." . . "The 
sketch of the sail on Sebago Lake surely was written by 
some one who was in that party. Symmes might have been 
there, but he was a genius deserving the fame of a Chat- 
terton if he really did this. Three of that party I personally 

445 



APPENDIX A 

knew — one (Sawyer) was a cousin of my grandfather. His 
sleight of hand, his skill with rifle, his being a ' votary of 
chance,' are traditions in my family." 

This does not differ essentially from the 
opinion I have already expressed in Chapter II. 
F. B. Sanborn, who is one of the best-informed 
of living men in regard to Hawthorne, takes 
a similar view. 



446 



APPENDIX B 

In February, 1883, a review of "Nathaniel 
Hawthorne and his Wife" was published in 
the Atlantic Monthly, evidently written by a 
person with no good- will toward the family. 
Editors ought to beware of such reviews, for 
their character is easily recognized, and the 
effect they produce often reacts upon the pub- 
lication that contains them. In the present 
instance, the ill-humor of the writer had evi- 
dently been bottled up for many years. 

To place typographical errors to the debit 
of an author's account — not very numerous 
for a work of eight hundred pages — suggests 
either an inexperienced or a strongly preju- 
diced critic. This is what the Atlantic writer 
begins with, and he (or she) next proceeds to 
complain that the book does not contain a 
complete bibliography of Hawthorne's works; 
although many excellent biographies have been 
published without this, and it is quite possible 
that Hawthorne's son preferred not to insert 
it. No notice is taken of the many fine passages 
in the book, like the apostrophe upon Haw- 
thorne's marriage,* and that excellent de- 
scription of the performances of a trance medium 
at Florence, but continues in an ascending 
climax of fault-finding until he (or she) reaches 

* J. Hawthorne, i. 242. 
447 



APPENDIX B 

the passage from Hawthorne's Roman diary 
concerning Margaret Fuller.* 

If public opinion has any value, this passage 
concerning Margaret Fuller's marriage ought 
not to have been published; but what can 
Margaret Fuller's friends and admirers expect? 
Do they think that a young American woman 
can go to a foreign country, and live with a 
foreign gentleman, in defiance of the customs 
of modern society, without subjecting herself 
to the severest criticism? It is true that she 
married Count d'Ossoli before her child was 
born, and her friends, who were certainly an 
enlightened class, always believed that she 
acted throughout from the most honorable 
motives (my own opinion is, that she acted in 
imitation of Goethe), but how can they expect 
the great mass of mankind to think so? Haw- 
thorne had a right to his opinion, as well as 
Emerson and Channing, and although it was 
certainly not a very charitable opinion, we can- 
not doubt that it was an honest one. In regard 
to the marriage tie, Hawthorne was always 
strict and conservative. 

This is the climax of the Atlantic critique, 
and its anti-climax is an excoriation of Haw- 
thorne's son for neglecting to do equal and 
exact justice to James T. Fields. This truly 
is a grievous accusation. Fields was Haw- 
thorne's publisher and would seem to have 
taken a personal and friendly interest in him 

* J. Hawthorne, i. 30-35. 
448 



APPENDIX B 

besides, but we cannot look on it as a wholly 
unselfish interest. It was not like Hillard's, 
Pierce's, and Bridge's interest in Hawthorne. 
If Fields had not been his publisher, it is not 
probable that Hawthorne would have made 
his acquaintance; and if his son has not 
enlarged on Fields 's good offices in bringing 
" The Scarlet Letter" before the public, there 
is an excellent reason for it, in the fact that 
Fields had already done so for himself in his 
"Yesterdays with Authors." That Fields 's 
name should have been omitted in the index 
to "Nathaniel Hawthorne and his Wife," may 
have been an oversight; but, at all events, 
it is too microscopic a matter to deserve con- 
sideration in a first-class review. 

Are we become such babies, that it is no 
longer possible for a writer to tell the plain, 
ostensible truth concerning human nature, with- 
out having a storm raised about his head for 
it? George P. Bradford and Martin F. Tupper 
are similar instances, and like Boswell have 
suffered the penalty which accrues to men of 
small stature for associating with giants. 



29 449 



APPENDIX C 

The great poets and other writers of all na- 
tions whom I conceive to be superior to Haw- 
thorne, may be found in the following list : 
Homer, ^schylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Pin- 
dar, Thucydides, Plato, Aristotle, Demosthenes, 
Theocritus, Plutarch; Horace, Virgil, Cicero, 
Tacitus; Dante, Tasso, Petrarch; Cervantes, 
Calderon, Camoens; Moliere, Racine, Descartes, 
Voltaire; Lessing, Goethe, Schiller, Kant; 
Swedenborg; Chaucer, Shakespeare, Bacon, 
Milton, and perhaps Burns and Byron; Alex- 
ander Hamilton, Napoleon. 

These also may be placed more on an equality 
with Hawthorne, although there will of course 
always be wide differences of opinion on that 
point: Hesiod, Herodotus, Menander, Aristo- 
phases; Livy, Caesar, Lucretius, Juvenal; Ari- 
osto, Macchiavelli, Manzoni, Lope de Vega, 
Buthas Pato; Corneille, Pascal, Rousseau; 
Wieland, Klopstock, Heine, Auerbach; Spen- 
ser, Ben Jonson, Fletcher, Fielding, Pope, Scott, 
Wordsworth, Shelley, Carlyle, Browning, Ten- 
nyson, Froude; Webster, Emerson, Wasson. 
Sappho, Bion, Moschus, and Cleanthes were 
certainly poets of a high order, but only some 
fragments of their poetry have survived. Gott- 
fried of Strassburg, the Minnesinger, might 
be included, and some of the finest English 
poetry was written by unknown geniuses of 

450 



APPENDIX C 

the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Ballads 
like "Chevy Chace" and the "Child of Elle" 
deserve a high place in the rank of poetry; 
and the German "Reineke Fuchs" is in its way 
without a rival. There may be other French, 
German, and Spanish writers of exceptional 
excellence with whom I am unacquainted, 
but I do not feel that any French or German 
novelists of the last century ought to be placed 
on a level with Hawthorne — only excepting 
Auerbach. Victor Hugo is grandiloquent, and 
the others all have some serious fault or limita- 
tion, I suppose that not one in ten of Emer- 
son's readers has ever heard of Wasson, but he 
was the better prose writer of the two, and 
little inferior as a poet. More elevated he could 
not be, but more profound, just, logical and 
humane — that is, more like Hawthorne. Emerson 
could not have filled his place on the Atlantic 
Monthly and the North American Review. 



451 



Ind 



ex 



PAGE 

Adams, John Quincy 75 

After-dinner speeches 283 

Alcott, A. Bronson 169, 193, 256, 387 

" Ambitious Guest, The," iii 

" Ancestral Footstep, The," 395 

Antinous of the villa Ludovisi 332 

" Arabella," the, ship 17 

Arnold, Matthew 279 

" Artist of the Beautiful, The," 190 

Athenaean Society 65 

Atlantic Club 381 

Aurelius, Marcus 108 

Bacon's, Miss, volume published 301 

Balzac 431 

Bancroft, George 135 

Beethoven 423 

Bennoch, Francis 305, 353 

" Blithedale Romance " 128, 146, 247, 368 

Blodgett's boarding-house 291 

"Bloody Footstep " 390 

" Birth Mark, The," 181 

" Bosom Serpent, The," 184 

Bradford, George P 143, 151, 449 

Brandes, Danish critic 106, 427 

Bridge, Horatio, 

62, 66, 86, 91, 94, 125, 17s, 202, 272, 285, 396 

Bright, Henry A 353, 397, 406 

Brook Farm 148, 195, 248 

Brown, John 442 

Browning and Carlyle 109 

Browning, Mrs. Elizabeth Barrett 277 

Browning, Robert 321 

Buchanan, President 286, 292 

453 



INDEX 

PAGE 

Carlyle and Hawthorne 86 

Castor and Pollux, statues of 310 

" Celestial Railroad, The," I'^.j 

Cenci, Beatrice, portrait of 337, 363 

Channing, Ellery 164, 170 

Channing, William H 421 

Cilley and Graves duel 100 

Cilley, Jonathan 63, 83, 88 

description of 98 

Clarke, Edward H 411 

Clarke, Rev. Dr. James F 154, 420 

" Code of Honor," the loi 

College skepticism 425 

Columbia, statue of . 330 

Concord River 157 

Conway, Rev. M. D 124, 166, 366, 438 

Crab spider, the 391 

Crawford, sculptor 363, 340 

" Critique of Pure Reason, The," 194 

Curtis, George William 163 

Dallas, George M 292 

Dante's Inferno 134 

Dickens 124, 432 

" Doctor Grimshawe's Secret " 389 

DoUiver, Dr 412 

" DoUiver Romance, The," 410, 412 

Donatello's crime 370 

Dwight, John S., musical critic 150 

Elgin marbles 335 

Eliot, George 224, 357 

Emerson i47. MQ, 161, 165 

essays 168, 239, 438 

Emerson, Mrs. R. W 439 

her figure 439 

religious views 44^ 

English lakes 288 

" English Note-book," 304 

454 



INDEX 

PAGE 

English scenery 280 

Essex County people 3 

Evans, Marian 357 

" Fancy's Show Box " 198 

" Fanshawe " 80, 172 

" Faun of Praxiteles " 323, 364 

" Felton, Septimius," 394 

Fielding 432 

Fields, James T 219, 448 

Florentine art 321 

Fourier 139, 148 

Fuller, Margaret i6r, 193, 194 

as Zenobia 250, 251 

her marriage 3^51, 448 

Gardner, E. A., Prof 334 

Genius, its growth yy 

" Gentle Boy, The," 118 

Ghosts 161 

Gibson, sculptor 312 

his tinted Eves and Venuses 343 

Gladstone, William E., on transcendentalism 192, 406 

Godkin, E. L 34 

Goethe 189, 375 

Golden Age, A 371 

Goodrich, S. G., editor 88, 90, 95 

" Great Carbuncle, The," 112 

" Great Stone Face, The," 242 

Guilty glimpses at hired models 342 

Gurney, Prof. E. W 418 

" Hall of Fantasy, The," 189 

Harris, Dr. William T 193 

Harvard Law School 403 

Hathorne, Daniel 28 

Hathorne, John 23 

witches' j udge 26 

his last will 26 

his gravestone 27 

455 



INDEX 

PAGE 

Hathorne, Joseph 28 

Hathorne, Nathaniel 30 

Hathorne, William 20 

Letter to British Ministry 22 

Hawthorne, Elizabeth 87 

Hawthorne, Julian 120, 205, 215, 257, 405, 407, 418 

Hawthorne, Louisa 43 

her death 262 

Hawthorne, Mrs. Sophia Peabody 120 

becomes engaged to Hawthorne 132 

writes to her mother 210 

encourages her husband 216 

praises her husband 232 

is out of health 283 

goes to Madeira 289 

is presented at court 290 

the original of Hilda 366 

at Concord 383 

her opinions 405 

character and style 443 

Hawthorne, Nathaniel, 

his English ancestors 19 

family name 32 

birthplace oS 

his lameness 40 

early poetry 42 

life at Sebago 44 

his first diary 48 

the budding of his genius 51 

fits for college 54 

" Pin Society " 55 

religious instruction 57 

decides on his vocation 58 

has the measles 61 

his life at Bowdoin 65 

outdoor sports ^o 

is fined for gambling ^2 

graduates at Bowdoin 76 

decides his profession 79 

456 



INDEX 

PAGE 

Hawthorne, Nathaniel, continued. 

publishes " Fanshawe " 80 

changes his name 82 

despondency 84 

goes to Lake Champlain 89 

wins his bet with Cilley 93 

commences his diary 97 

his supposed challenge 102 

thanks Longfellow 115 

goes to Berkshire Hills • 127 

character of his diary 129 

his engagement 132 

enters Custom House 135-' 

goes to Brook Farm 141 

his marriage 154 

his true Arcadia 160 

his skating. 164 

opinion of Emerson 167 

birth of a daughter 174 

his indolence 175 

style as an author 189 ^ 

returns to Robert Manning's house 203 

is appointed Surveyor of the Port 203 

son Julian is born 205 

occupies house on Mall street 209 

is removed from office 213 

publishes " Scarlet Letter " 219 

method of development 227 

sits for his portrait ; goes to Lenox 230 

publishes " House of Seven Gables " 239 

birth of his daughter Rose 240 

leaves Lenox for Newton 254 

returns to Concord 257 

writes the " Life of Pierce " 258 

the Liverpool consulate 266 

sails for England 267 

as an office-holder 271 

his life in England 276 

makes a speech 283 

457 



INDEX 

PAGE 

Hawthorne, Nathaniel, continued. 

kindness to Delia Bacon , 300 

resigns the Consulate 302 

as a law writer 303 

goes to Paris 308 

arrives at Rome 308 

journeys to Florence 314 

goes to the Vatican 333 

on modern sculpture 341 

returns to Rome 345 

visits Geneva 353 

summer at Redcar 354 

publishes the " Marble Faun " 356 

Hawthorne the famous 376 

begins to dislike writing 377 

returns to Concord 378 

method of writing 384 

patriotism 385 

proposes to arm megroes 386 

preparatory sketches 388 

sojourns at Beverly Farms 392 

last entry in his journal 402 

dedicates book to President Pierce 406 

at home 408 

personal appearance 409 

seriously ill 410 

Hawthorne's philosophy 415 

his death 418 

his funeral 420 

religious convictions 421, 426 

his position in literature 428 

Hawthorne, Rose, her birth 240 

her memoirs 315 

Hawthorne's mother 30 

her character 37, 38 

her death 217 

— Hawthorne, Una, her birth 174 

severe illness of 346, 394 

Hilda, character of 273 

458 



INDEX 

PAGE 

Hilda, continued. 

her tower 375 

Hillard, George S 133, 172, 217, 218 

Hoar, Miss Elizabeth 161, 165 

Holiday epauletes 260 

Holmes, Oliver Wendell 133, 416 

Hosmer, Harriet 350 

Houghton, Lord 411 

" House of the Seven Gables, The," 233, 368 

Howe, Dr. Samuel G 163 

Hunt, suicide of Miss 169 

Italian Note-book 330 

Jackson, Andrew 75, 100 

James, Henry, Jr 382 

James, Henry, Sr 382 

Jameson, Mrs. Anna 314, 329 

Jerrold, Douglas 295 

Kansas-Nebraska Bill 273 

Kant, Immanuel 191 

Kemble, Frances 231, 244 

Kitridge, Doctor 41 

" Lady Eleanor's Mantle " 1 1 1 

Laocobn 334 

Lathrop, George P 48, 389 

Leamington 288 

Lincoln, President 397 

Liverpool Consulate 269 

Longfellow, Henry W 46, 64, 83 

reviews Hawthorne 104, 362 

Loring, Frederick W 229 

Loring, Dr. George B 207, 404 

Lowell, James Russell 196 

Mann, Horace 246, 255 

Mann, Mrs. Horace 118 

Manning family ,. 31 

459 



INDEX 

PAGE 

Manning, Rebecca 38, 205 

Manning, Richard 44 

Manning, Robert ■^'j, 43, 53 

" Marble Faun, The," English reviews of 359 

analysis of 362 

its original 368 

McClellan, General George B 396 

McMichael, Morton 293 

Melville, Hermann 245 

Mexican War 176, 211 

Michel Angelo 318, 320 

his Last Judgment and Moses ^^^ 

" Miroir, Monsieur du " 174, 180 

" Mosses from an Old Manse " 173 

Motley's opinions 359, 391 

" Mrs. Bullfrog " 174, 180 

Niagara Falls, visit to iii 

North American Review 104 

Nurse, Rebecca, a witch 25 

Offensive partisanship 214 

" Old Manse," the 156, 158 

" Ontario Steamboat, The," 112 

O'Sullivan, an editor 203, 282 

" Our Old Home " 405 

Parker, Theodore 258 

Peabody, Elizabeth 39, 117, 119, 141, 212 

Peabody, Sophia Amelia 120 

Philadelphia Hock Club 293 

Pickard, Samuel T 49, 445 

Pierce, Franklin 62, 68, 83 

elected Senator 93, 202 

goes to the war 208 

nominated for President 257, 259 

his father 259 

various 275, 292, 302, 349, 417 

Pike, William B 207 

460 



INDEX 

PAGE 

Poetic mind, the 424 

Politicians, opinion of 139 

Portraits of Hawthorne by Osgood, Healy, Rowse, and 



others 



433 



Positivists 197 

Powers, Hiram 316, 317 

his America 327, 350 

Prescott, George L 161 

Prince of Wales 348 

Pyncheon, Clifford 235 

Quakers, persecution of 21 

Raphael's Transfiguration 331 

" Rappacini's Daughter " 183 

Reform Club of London 295 

Ripley, George 140, 145, 148, 152, 248 

Rock Ferry 269 

Roman Carnival 348 

Runnel, Mary, sweetheart of Daniel Hathorne '. . . . . 326 

Ruskin 328 

Sailors maltreated 287 

Salem architecture 12 

Salem, situation of 11 

Salem society 209 

Salem's sea-captains 14 

Sanborn, Frank B., attempt to kidnap 378, 446 

" Scarlet Letter, The," 204, 218, 220, 368 

Schonbach, A. E., German critic 427 

" Select Party, The," 185, 198 

Shakespeare, authorship of 300 

Epitaph 302 

Shaw, Chief Justice 15 

Shelley 189 

Sheridan's Ride 312 

" Sights from a Steeple " 114 

Silsbee, Edward 306, 311 

Sistine Chapel 336 

461 



INDEX 

PAGE 

Skepticism of evil io6 

Slavery Question 260 

" Snow Image " 240 

Spartan discipline 137 

Story, William W 310 

St. Petersburg Venus 352 

Sumner and Motley 349 

Sumner, Charles 200, 354 

Swartwout's defalcation 131 

Symms, William, a mulatto 47, 445 

" Tanglewood Tales " 266 

Taylor, President 211 

Thoreau 163 

of marriage 169, 193 

Ticknor, W. D., death of 417 

Tituba, the Aztec 25 

Tragedy, character of 367 

Trance medium, a 325 

Transcendentalism • 191 

essence of 198 

Tupper, Martin Farquhar 280 

Turner, J. M. W 285 

" Twice Told Tales " 96, 108 

" Unpardonable Sin, The," 243 

Upham, the historian 20, 236 

Vanity of Women 171 

Vasari 332 

Venus de Medici 318 

" Vicar of Wakefield " 223 

Victor Hugo 43i 

Villa Manteiito 316 

" Virtuoso's Collection, The," 188 

" Vision at the Fountain, The," 198 

Ward's Tavern 7i 

Warwick Castle 356 

462 



INDEX 

PAGE 

Wasson, David A 193, 422 

Waters, Henry F., researches of 18 

Wayside, The 256 

Webster, Daniel 135, 206 

West Roxbury commune 152 

Whittier, the poet 17 

Wig Castle in Wigton 18 

Witchcraft persecution 15, 24 

Wood, Warrington 341 

Worcester, Doctor, the lexicographer 54 

" Young Goodman Brown " 181 



463 



0-4 



